Minbak - by Ela Lee (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"A beautifully written and gorgeous novel." --Marjan Kamali, New York Times bestselling author of The Lion Women of Tehran

Minbak (n.) a lodging in a private home

Korea, 1985: Hana Park's future is bright. A star student and beloved daughter, she dreams of a life beyond working at her family's local minbak. After a devastating encounter with a foreign guest, Hana flees Korea's dictatorship for London to capture the future she so desperately desires, leaving her heartbroken mother Youngja to pick up the pieces.

London, 2008: When her husband dies unexpectedly in the midst of the global financial crisis, Hana is left with a pile of debt and no way to pay it off. With her teenage daughter Ada and a declining Youngja relying on her, she has no choice but to move her family into one bedroom and open the rest of their home to paying guests as a minbak.

As tragedy brings the three women together, old tensions surface, and the family's long-hidden secrets threaten to erupt. With no one to turn to but each other, Hana, Youngja, and Ada must confront their complex history, crossing continents and generations to find truth, forgiveness, and compassion.

Review Quotes

"A beautifully written and gorgeous novel about motherhood, generational trauma, and the long shadow of a nation's hidden history. Through the intertwined lives of a mother, daughter, and grandmother, this moving story traces how silence shapes fate and how love endures through our choice to forgive each and every day." --Marjan Kamali, New York Times bestselling author of The Lion Women of Tehran

"Minbak is a poignant novel about grief, sacrifice, and motherhood. In tender yet incisive prose, Ela Lee offers us a portrait of the many ways three generations of women fold and shape themselves around the ones they love, the secrets they keep out of a misguided instinct to protect one another, and the love that serves as a throughline despite trauma and heartbreak. It is also an indictment of American imperialist structures, and, most importantly, the economic, sociocultural, and capitalist forces that facilitated the foreign adoptions of hundreds of thousands of Korean children. Lee's story is a gripping one; it makes it impossible for us to look away." --Karissa Chen, bestselling author of Homeseeking

"Minbak is a tender portrayal of women across three generations grappling with memory, intergenerational trauma, and how to love through impossible situations. Against the fascinating backdrop of South Korea's transition to democracy, Ela Lee weaves a poignant family saga not just of seeking a home, but of making a home--whether through the community of a minbak, or through piecing together a fractured family. Minbak will leave you wanting to call your mother and your grandmother in order to understand them just a little more." --Allison King, author of The Phoenix Pencil Company

"Ela Lee's second novel is a beautifully written, intergenerational story about hidden trauma and the mistakes we make when trying to protect the people we love, tying the painful secret of a single family to a broader reckoning with the systematic exploitation of the stigma that women and girls face when deviating from social norms." --Eve Chung, bestselling author of Daughters of Shandong

"Minbak will be a standout book for many people this year, taking on a huge undertaking with apparent ease...Lee writes about migration, motherhood and belonging with a light but emotionally precise touch...cementing the book's status as something truly cathartic." --Cosmopolitan (UK)

"Minbak is a stunning portrayal of love, duty, race, and transformation against the alternating backdrops of two nations in turmoil. Ela Lee writes with compassion and great wisdom about the dark depths of the human soul - and the possibility of redemption." --Juhea Kim, bestselling author of Beasts of a Little Land and City of Night Birds

"With love and care, Minbak unearths a dark page of history that has long been in the shadows. Ela Lee has written a beautiful, tender story of displacement and loss which shows the resilience of the human spirit, and the family ties that transcend all wounds." --Cecile Pin, author of Wandering Souls

"Minbak is a powerful, heartrending family saga that traces the long shadow of grief against the backdrop of Korea's paper orphans. Lee writes with a quiet, aching honesty that remained with me long after I turned the final page." --Monika Kim, bestselling author of The Eyes Are the Best Part

"Minbak aches with the unspeakable nature of loss. Deeply moving and graceful, it shines light on a secret slice of Korea's history, gradually unveiling the secrets that bind--and divide--three generations." --Silvia Park, author of Luminous

"Minbak is a poignant and precise novel by a writer of great skill. Each of the interweaving narratives exposes the rippling injustice of a global industry too often ignored, bringing so powerfully to life the pain it visits upon these beautifully drawn characters." --Nicola Dinan, author of Disappoint Me

About the Author

ELA LEE's debut novel Jaded was published in 2024, and was an Amazon Best Fiction Book of the Year. Lee has been named a Spotify Breakout Author and has also been selected for Forbes 30 under 30, Class of 2025. A graduate of Oxford and a former lawyer, she lives in London with her partner and their mini Aussie, Bo. Minbak is her second novel.