Pachinko (National Book Award Finalist) - by Min Jin Lee

Book Synopsis

A trade paperback special edition of the modern classic Pachinko, National Book Award finalist and named one of the New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
Features of the paperback special limited edition:

• Full cover with special effects
• Four color stenciled edges
• Four color tip-in

History is seldom kind. In Min Jin Lee's acclaimed and magisterial novel, four generations of a poor, proud immigrant family fight to control their destinies, exiled from their homeland.

In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant--and that her lover is married--she refuses to bend to his will. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home and reject her son's powerful father sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through generations.

Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan's finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee's complex and passionate characters--strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crises--survive and flourish against the indifferent arc of history.

Review Quotes

"A culturally rich, psychologically astute family saga."--The Washington Post

"A powerful story about resilience and compassion."--President Obama

"A really powerful presentation of women's resilience and grit in the face of adversity... A moving and memorable read."--Her Majesty Queen Camilla

"A social novel in the Dickensian vein...frequently heartbreaking."--USA Today

"A sweeping, multigenerational saga about one Korean family making its way in Japan. The immigrant issues resonate; the story captivates."--People

"I could not put Pachinko down...you will race through it...I was totally absorbed by the characters and, in fact, it's so readable it will leave you wanting more."--Dua Lipa

"Lee is a master plotter, but the larger issues of class, religion, outsider history and culture she addresses in Pachinko make this a tour de force you'll think about long after you finish reading."--National Book Review

"Lee's sweeping four-generation saga of a Korean family is an extraordinary epic, both sturdily constructed and beautiful."--The San Francisco Chronicle

"Spanning nearly 100 years and moving from Korea at the start of the 20th century to pre- and postwar Osaka and, finally, Tokyo and Yokohama, the novel reads like a long, intimate hymn to the struggles of people in a foreign land...Much of the novel's authority is derived from its weight of research, which brings to life everything from the fishing village on the coast of the East Sea in early 20th-century Korea to the sights and smells of the shabby Korean township of Ikaino in Osaka - the intimate, humanising details of a people striving to carve out a place for themselves in the world. Vivid and immersive, Pachinko is a rich tribute to a people that history seems intent on erasing."--The Guardian (UK)

"Stunning... Despite the compelling sweep of time and history, it is the characters and their tumultuous lives that propel the narrative... A compassionate, clear gaze at the chaotic landscape of life itself. In this haunting epic tale, no one story seems too minor to be briefly illuminated. Lee suggests that behind the facades of wildly different people lie countless private desires, hopes and miseries, if we have the patience and compassion to look and listen."--The New York Times Book Review

International Bestseller

A New York Times Best Book of 2017

A New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

National Book Award Finalist

Finalist for the 2018 Dayton Literary Peace Prize

Winner of the Medici Book Club Prize

A President Obama Recommended Read

A New York Times Readers Pick 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

An LA Times 30 Best Fiction Books of the Last 30 Years

A Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the 21st Century

An Oprah Daily Best Historical Fiction Books of All Time

Amazon Editors' 25 Years of Best Books Selection

An Australian Broadcasting Company Top 100 Books of the 21st Century

About the Author

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.