Min Jin Lee's American Hagwon Follows Pachinko Into Cram School Culture

The Guardian has called Min Jin Lee's new novel, American Hagwon, "a gloriously immersive follow-up to Pachinko," in a review published on 5 November 2026.

The book is 650 pages long and is the third novel in Lee's Diaspora Quartet, a series whose name points to four books. Its story stretches across nearly three decades and moves between Seoul, Sydney and California before ending back in Seoul. The Guardian's reviewer places the family at the centre of it: John and Helen Koh and their three children, Bo, DH and Mido. The first pages are set in 1992, when the family lives a comfortable middle-class life in Korea.

The title is a Korean term. A hagwon is a private cram school, the after-hours classes that many Korean families pay for so their children can win places at good schools and universities. Lee has said she began the novel almost a decade ago to understand why education matters so much to Koreans everywhere. The Associated Press, in a January 2026 report, described the book as an exploration of that same Korean obsession with education.

Lee's name is already attached to one of the best-known novels of recent years. Pachinko, published in 2017, follows four generations of a Korean family living in Japan. The Guardian reported in October 2026 that the book has sold more than 5 million copies worldwide. It was also named one of the New York Times' 100 best books of the century.

Lee's own website lists her third novel with a publication date of 29 September 2026, and describes her as New York State Author Laureate for 2025 to 2027. That post is a two-year role in which a writer is asked to promote literature across the state.

For readers, the practical point is simple. A novel of 650 pages is a long commitment, and this one asks for a lot of time with one family across three countries. Anyone who loved the sweep of Pachinko now has a larger book to pick up, and the Guardian's reviewer has already said it is worth the trip.