Social Media Ideas for Pachinko (Book)

‘I thought, if I’m going to die, I’m going to write a book first’: Pachinko author Min Jin Lee

Her last novel sold 5m copies and was adapted into a hit series. Nearly 10 years on, the Korean-American author has written another epic. She discusses ambition and the diagnosis t...

Min Jin Lee on “American Hagwon,” Her First Novel After the Phenomenon of “Pachinko”

The author talks with David Remnick about leaving corporate law to become a novelist, and making Korean culture and experiences legible to readers around the globe.

Color Game Philippines and the Perya Tradition: A Familiar Game Finds a New Setting

The colors come first. Yellow, white, pink, blue, red, and green stand out against the familiar excitement of a Color Game. Then come the dice—three of them—rolling to determine th...

‘Children Untold’ shines a light on the plight of postwar orphans

Miwa Nishikawa's "Children Untold" tells a Dickensian tale of Japanese orphans in the aftermath of World War II.

Min Jin Lee Was Underestimated for Half Her Life. Then She Started to Write.

A torch bearer for the great 19th-century tradition of social realism, she’s become one of the most important novelists of her generation.

CAO points have nothing on Korean ‘grind schools’ in Min Jin Lee’s gripping family saga

Fiction

A station-side store opens to new readers with THE FRIDAY BOOKSHOP’s English debut

As more Japanese novels reach English speakers, The Friday Bookshop feels well-timed, offering the kind of story people have been gravitating towards. The post A station-side store...

MAUKA

June Nakashima, whose working-class Japanese American family lived in a section of Hilo known as Kimiville, lost her parents in the 1960 tsunami that devastated the region; when sh...

紫式部文学賞に金原さんの「YABUNONAKA―ヤブノナカ―」

Pong

When I was a pre-teen, in addition to the pinball games, a new game appeared that was played on, of all things, a television screen. It was called Pong (as in Ping-Pong), and for 2...

Book Review: Accumulation by Aimee Pokwatka

When Tennessee Cherish and her family move from North Carolina to a pricier neighborhood in New York state, she knows that their quirkily constructed new home is a gift specificall...

Mei Inoue, Osamu Koike, Atsushi Ikeda, Issei Igarashi and Yoshio "Chin" Suzuki

Episode 978 of Neon Jazz takes us on a deep dive into the sounds, spirit and surprises of Japanese jazz. This is a special themed Japanese Jazz Hour, inspired by the new 2026 book...

Papaya Salad

by Felix Cheong   War memoirs usually announce their scars, complete with bandaged words that barely conceal old wounds. Elisa Macellari’s Papaya Salad does something quieter, and...

Star Japanese novelist jumps from killer thrillers to children’s books

Asako Yuzuki, famous for thrillers like Butter, pivots to children's literature with her new book, "Mari the Unwonderful Witch."

The Bar Book / The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip

Issue No. 139

The Empty Classrooms of ‘American Hagwon’

Min Jin Lee’s third novel struggles under the weight of its sociological questions.