The Evening Hero - by Marie Myung-Ok Lee (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A "moving and captivating" (Cathy Park Hong, New York Times bestselling author of Minor Feelings) novel following a Korean immigrant pursuing the American dream who must confront the secrets of the past or risk watching the world he's worked so hard to build come crumbling down.Dr. Yungman Kwak is in the twilight of his life. Every day for the last fifty years, he has brushed his teeth, slipped on his shoes, and headed to Horse Breath's General Hospital, where, as an obstetrician, he treats the women and babies of the small rural Minnesota town he chose to call home. This was the life he longed for. The so-called American dream. He immigrated from Korea after the Korean War, forced to leave his family, ancestors, village, and all that he knew behind. But his life is built on a lie. And one day, a letter arrives that threatens to expose it. Yungman's life is thrown into chaos--the hospital abruptly closes, his wife refuses to spend time with him, and his son is busy investing in a struggling health start-up. Yungman faces a choice--he must choose to hide his secret from his family and friends or confess and potentially lose all he's built. He begins to question the very assumptions on which his life is built--the so-called American dream, with the abject failure of its healthcare system, patients and neighbors who perpetuate racism, a town flawed with infrastructure, and a history that doesn't see him in it. Toggling between the past and the present, Korea and America, Evening Hero is a "soulful, melodic, rhapsodic novel" (The New York Times) about a man looking back at his life and asking big questions about what is lost and what is gained when immigrants leave home for new shores.

Review Quotes

"This precise, watchful novel reveals the loneliness of the immigrant experience, even when cloaked in outward success... a novel about healers and healing, about unflashy, quiet heroism...[with] lyrical, lush, deeply felt prose... a soulful, melodic, rhapsodic novel."-THE NEW YORK TIMES "The novel also elucidates with remarkable feeling how war reverberates through a person's lifetime-their body, mind, and memories-no matter how far in the past it may seem. This story is filled with as much heartache and healing as it is historical significance." -KIRKUS REVIEWS "An ambitious story charting the travails of an elderly immigrant doctor...Lee offers touching details...fans of immigrant stories will appreciate Lee's labor of love."-PUBLISHERS WEEKLY