ANNOUNCING AMERICAN HAGWON BY MIN JIN LEE
ACCLAIMED BESTSELLING AUTHOR MIN JIN LEE RETURNS WITH A STUNNING FAMILY SAGA
TO BE PUBLISHED BY CARDINAL ON SEPTEMBER 29, 2026
New York, NY (January 14, 2026) — Cardinal, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing (Hachette Book Group), is thrilled to announce the publication of AMERICAN HAGWON: the long-awaited new novel from National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author Min Jin Lee. The book will be published in hardcover, e-book, and audio editions on September 29th, 2026. 4th Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins UK, acquired British Commonwealth and audio rights, excluding Canada, and will publish simultaneously.
Min Jin Lee, author of beloved novels Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko, a New York Times “100 Best Books of the Century,” returns with a breathtaking contemporary epic: a panoramic and emotionally riveting portrait of one family’s pursuit of success in a perpetually shifting world.
“The rules of engagement have changed already.” So begins the story of John and Helen Koh and their three children Bo, DH, and Mido. Through years of careful discipline, elite education, and self-sacrifice, John and Helen have reached relative financial security when their lives are upended: first by a shocking betrayal by John’s oldest friend, and then by Asia’s IMF Crisis. Desperately striving to regain their footing, they move to Sydney and eventually to Southern California—where the children encounter new opportunities as their parents, strangers in a strange land, adjust to a new home where old wisdom and rules of achievement no longer apply.
From 1992 – 2008, and from Seoul to Sydney to Orange County and back, the Kohs, their friends, relatives, and foes move in and out of each other’s lives as they travel through the decades, nurturing the almost all-consuming faith that education will lead the next generation to lasting success and security. But what happens if that fails to be true? How can we keep apace with the quicksand of modern life—and what do we owe one another in the name of love?
In AMERICAN HAGWON, Min Jin Lee has crafted an unforgettable, sweeping novel where the smallest of gestures can have enormous repercussions, where the ties of family and of memory twist and fray but rarely part, and where willful self-sacrifice—for the benefit of loved ones and strangers, even—is a kind of prayer. The third book in what will form a diaspora quartet, AMERICAN HAGWON is a classic in the making, an incandescent narrative of ambition, lust, survival, and unexpected grace.
Min Jin Lee said of her novel: “Almost a decade ago, I started to write American Hagwon because I wanted to understand why education is so important to Koreans everywhere. After I wrote it, I realized that I wanted to know how to live a wise life in a world that was changing too fast. American Hagwon is the novel I’ve most wanted to share with my readers, because as a reader myself, I needed to figure out how to live, struggle better and flourish when the odds feel against us.”
Reagan Arthur, SVP and Publisher of Cardinal, said: “You might not normally associate the words immigration, economics, and education with a page-turning contemporary saga, but that’s part of Min Jin Lee’s genius: in AMERICAN HAGWON, lives are upended and shaped by the forces that affect so many of us today, and one family’s fight for survival is a battle that’s both universal and beautifully intimate.”
Min Jin Lee is the author of the novels Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko, a finalist for the National Book Award, runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and a New York Times ‘100 Best Books of the Century.’ She serves as the New York State Author Laureate from 2025 through 2027. She is the 2024 recipient of The Fitzgerald Prize for Literary Excellence. Lee has received the Manhae Grand Prize for Literature, the Bucheon Diaspora Literary Award, and the Samsung Happiness for Tomorrow Award for Creativity from South Korea. She is the recipient of fellowships in Fiction from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Lee is an inductee of the New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame and the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. She lives in Harlem with her family.
About Cardinal:
Cardinal is a new imprint at Grand Central Publishing that aims to bring readers books that entertain and enlighten, across genres and across borders. Publishing such authors as Rebecca Armitage, Catherine Chidgey, Séamas O’Reilly, Justin Halpern, and George Pelecanos, the books vary in setting, voice, and plot—but always have two cardinal traits in common: excellent writing and brilliant storytelling.
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About Hachette Book Group:
Hachette Book Group (HBG) is a leading U.S. general-interest book publisher made up of dozens of esteemed imprints within the publishing groups Basic Books Group, Grand Central Publishing Group, Hachette Audio, Little, Brown and Company, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Orbit, Workman Publishing, and Running Press Group. We also provide custom distribution, fulfillment, and sales services to several publishing companies.
Our books and authors have received the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Caldecott Medal, Newbery Medal, Booker Prize, Nobel Prize, James Beard Award, and other major honors.
We are committed to diversity in our company and our publishing programs, and to fostering a culture of inclusion for all our employees and authors. We are proud to be part of Hachette Livre, the world’s third-largest trade and educational publisher.
Visit hachettebookgroup.com to learn more about HBG imprints. For updated news follow HBG on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Threads, TikTok, X.com, Snapchat, and YouTube.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Cordelia Calvert, Publicity Director, Cardinal
917.923.9299| cordelia.calvert@hbgusa.com
Michael Taeckens, Broadside PR
919-699-2879 | michael@broadsidepr.com
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