Description The anguish and pain of a young woman who can belong fully neither to America nor to Korea—a new way of living, born from mutual healing and understanding. The present-day voice of the Korean diaspora, speaking with a familiar face in an unfamiliar land. Min Jin Lee, the author who illuminated the lives of Koreans before and after liberation through the four-generation saga of a Zainichi Korean family in Pachinko, wrote her debut novel Free Food for Millionaires as a story woven with autobiographical threads—chronicling the successes, failures, love, and heartbreak of second-generation Korean American youth. The first generation of Korean immigrants, who lived through the Korean War, succeeded in putting down roots in American society through their characteristic diligence and perseverance. Casey's parents are no exception. Running a dry-cleaning business, they poured everything into giving their daughter the education they themselves had sacrificed in their youth—and their efforts bore fruit. Yet even a talented, well-educated daughter of immigrants finds that American society still erects rigid walls of gender, race, and pedigree. Carrying both guilt for failing to meet her parents' expectations and quiet fury at the prejudice faced by Korean American women, Casey walks alone through a seemingly endless, dark tunnel of a life. The title, Free Food for Millionaires, can be read two ways: as the world's favors freely granted to the privileged, or as the privileged class's unhesitating enjoyment of every favor the world offers. To be recognized as full members of American society, Casey and her friends graduate from prestigious universities, take respectable jobs, make friends, and fall in love. And yet, no matter how persistently they knock on the world's doors, the world is never kind to them. Just when they seem to have achieved a small success, it reveals an even colder face. Even when they prove their abilities, they are not respected—and at times, they experience the very same discrimination their parents once endured. In a 2021 interview, Min Jin Lee said, "When the book was first published in 2007, readers felt uncomfortable with the protagonist, Casey Han. But now, I feel she has finally met her era." The America that the curious, talented, rebellious yet independent Casey confronted back then doesn't seem so different from the Korea of 2022. The vivid, almost tangible picture the novel paints—of a world endlessly kind to the privileged but coldly turning its back on talent and effort, and of an older generation who cannot understand the frustration of those on the threshold of success after a lifetime of hard work alone—feels startlingly relevant. "I wanted to pay my respects by telling the truth as fully as I knew it—by bringing both the flaws and the beauty into the open without hiding them. I wanted the characters in this book to be imperfect and gifted, because I believe that's what we all are." —Min Jin Lee But the sons and daughters of immigrants in Free Food for Millionaires learn to live life in their own way. Unlike their parents' generation, who endured and sacrificed everything for family, they boldly desire, express themselves, and announce their presence to the world. They love more freely, part ways, and teach themselves the lessons no one else will. Though Casey's life becomes full of wounds through repeated mistakes and failures, paradoxically, the more she stumbles, the clearer the meaning and value of the things that sustain her become. In clumsily comforting the pain of those she loves, she too finds solace. Choosing understanding over conflict brings her, in the end, a sense of liberation and freedom. Min Jin Lee has described Free Food for Millionaires, Pachinko, and her forthcoming work American Hagwon (working title) as a 'Korean Diaspora' trilogy. Following Pachinko, a story of survival for people who lost their homeland, and Free Food for Millionaires, which traces a second generation's journey through wandering and struggle toward a sense of identity, all eyes are on what story of 'Korean-ness' American Hagwon will tell. Translator Yoo So-young, who brought Casey's New York to life with vivid, contemporary language, has written that Free Food for Millionaires can be a source of courage for the many immigrants who have settled in Korea and their children as well—offering a chance to reflect on the discrimination and barriers that exist within our own society. Written in English and first embraced by American readers...