The Last Story of Mina Lee, Nancy Jooyoun Kim
The Last Story of Mina Lee, Nancy Jooyoun Kim
15 Rating(s)
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
Club: $13.49

The Last Story of Mina Lee

Author: Nancy Jooyoun Kim

Narrator: Greta Jung

Unabridged: 10 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/01/2020

Categories: Fiction, Sagas, Coming Of Age


Synopsis

A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Riveting and unconventional, The Last Story of Mina Lee traces the far-reaching consequences of secrets in the lives of a Korean immigrant mother and her daughter

Margot Lee's mother is ignoring her calls. Margot can’t understand why, until she makes a surprise trip home to Koreatown, LA, and finds that her mother has suspiciously died. Determined to discover the truth, Margot unravels her single mother’s past as a Korean War orphan and an undocumented immigrant, only to realize how little she truly knew about her mother, Mina.

Thirty years earlier, Mina Lee steps off a plane to take a chance on a new life in America. Stacking shelves at a Korean grocery store, the last thing she expects is to fall in love. But that moment leads to repercussions for Mina that echo through the decades, leading up to the truth of what happened the night of her death.

Told through the intimate lens of a mother and daughter who have struggled all their lives to understand each other, The Last Story of Mina Lee is a powerful and exquisitely woven debut novel that explores identity, family, secrets, and what it truly means to belong.

HIGHLY ANTICIPATED BY FORTUNE · POPSUGAR · PUREWOW · BETCHES · GMA.COM · VULTURE · BUSTLE · THE MILLIONS · LITHUB · BOOKRIOT · BOOKISH

“Painful, joyous... A story that cries out to be told.” —Los Angeles Times

“Kim is a brilliant new voice in American fiction.” —Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

“Suspenseful and deeply felt.” —Chloe Benjamin, author of The Immortalists

About Nancy Jooyoun Kim

Nancy Jooyoun Kim is the New York Times bestselling author of What We Kept to Ourselves and The Last Story of Mina Lee, a Reese’s Book Club pick. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Angela M on January 04, 2021

3.5 stars This novel offers a moving view of the immigrant experience and reflects on a mother-daughter relationship filled with secrets, regret, and love. There are two time lines . Margot in 2014 seeks to find answers about what happened to her mother, her mother’s past and in doing so she finds o......more

Goodreads review by Lindsay L on September 03, 2020

3 stars for this quiet and insightful story. Margot’s mom, Mina, was a quiet single mother who worked hard to provide for her daughter. Margot doesn’t know much about her mother’s life before she immigrated from Korea before Margot was born. When Margot shows up at her mothers apartment unexpectedly,......more

Goodreads review by Danielle on March 26, 2021

I really wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. 😬 Overall, I just didn’t get anything from it. It felt a bit flat, very slow and... I don’t know.... boring? 🙄 I listened to the audiobook and it kept putting me to sleep. 😴 it’s not the worst thing I’ve read- but I don’t know who I’d recommend it......more

Goodreads review by Nursebookie on September 05, 2020

This novel made me call my mom and give her a virtual hug. As a daughter of an immigrant, and someone who grew up in Koreatown, Los Angeles in the late ‘80’s, I resonated with this book - the urban location, the people, the food brought back all kinds of memories for me. The neighborhood is as good......more

Goodreads review by Terrie on September 22, 2021

"The Last Story of Mina Lee" by Nancy Jooyoun Kim is the story about the complex relationship between a Korean immigrant single mother and her American-born daughter. Margot Lee, 26 YO, living in Seattle, is worried about her mother, Mina, who's not answering or returning her phone calls. Margo driv......more