Description The anguish and pain of a young woman who can be neither fully American nor fully Korean—a new way of living, found through embracing and healing one another. The present-day face of the Korean diaspora, speaking in a familiar voice from an unfamiliar land. Min Jin Lee, the author who illuminated the lives of our people before and after liberation through the four-generation saga of a Korean family in Japan in Pachinko, also wrote her debut novel, Free Food for Millionaires, a story rich with autobiographical elements about the successes, failures, loves, and losses of second-generation Korean American immigrants. 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 hard work. Casey's parents are no exception. Running a dry-cleaning business, they poured everything into giving their children the education they themselves had sacrificed in their youth—and their efforts bore fruit. But for the talented, well-educated daughter of immigrants, American society once again reveals its rigid walls of gender, race, and pedigree. Weighed down by guilt for failing to live up to her parents' expectations, and anger over the prejudice she must endure as a Korean American woman, Casey walks alone through a seemingly endless, bleak tunnel of life. The title, Free Food for Millionaires, can be read both as the world's favors bestowed upon the privileged, and as their unhesitating attitude in enjoying every advantage the world offers. To be recognized as full-fledged members of American society, Casey and her friends graduate from prestigious universities, work respectable jobs, make friends, and fall in love. Yet no matter how persistently they knock on its doors, the world is never kind to Casey and her friends. Just when they seem to have achieved a small success, it reveals an even colder side. Even when they prove their abilities, they are not respected, and at times they endure the very same discrimination their parents' generation once suffered. In a 2021 interview, Min Jin Lee said, "When the book was published in 2007, people found the protagonist Casey Han uncomfortable. But now I feel that 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, tangible portrayal of a world endlessly kind to the privileged but coldly turning its back on talent and effort—and the incomprehension of an older generation that competed on diligence alone and cannot understand the frustration of hitting a ceiling just before success—rings painfully true. "I wanted to pay tribute by speaking as truthfully as I could about what I know, by laying bare its flaws and beauty without hiding them. I wanted the characters in this book to be imperfect and talented, because I believe that's what we all are." —Min Jin Lee Yet the sons and daughters of immigrants in Free Food for Millionaires learn to live life in their own way. Unlike the generation before them, who endured and sacrificed for their families, they boldly desire, express themselves, and announce their existence to the world. They love more, part ways, and teach themselves about a world no one else will teach them. Through repeated mistakes and failures, Casey's life becomes filled with wounds—but paradoxically, the more she suffers, the clearer the meaning and value of what sustains her becomes. In the clumsy process of comforting the pain of those she loves, she herself finds solace. Choosing to understand rather than fight brought her a sense of liberation and freedom. Min Jin Lee has described Free Food for Millionaires, Pachinko, and her forthcoming novel 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, a story of a second-generation woman establishing her identity after wandering and hardship, all eyes are on what story of "being Korean" American Hagwon will tell. Translator Yoo So-young, who brought Casey's New York vividly to life in today's language, wrote that Free Food for Millionaires could be a source of courage for the many immigrants who have settled in Korea and their children. It is a work that also offers an opportunity to reflect on the discrimination and barriers within our own society. Written in English and first embraced by American readers...