Whitcoulls Recommends: American Hagwon and Partita

American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee. She wrote the wonderful book Pachinko some years ago and this is another masterpiece. John Koh is a South Korean businessman who’s badly betrayed by his boss and struggles to find another job, in the midst of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. He’s most concerned about the future of his kids, and the family move from Seoul to Sydney and then to Los Angeles looking for the good opportunities which never come. The next generation get involved in a hagwon, which is essentially a cramming school for students – but unlike the typical hagwon which is entirely driven by the desperate need for academic success, they’re more interested in developing well rounded and less stressed students.

Partita by Barbara Kingsolver. Author of the equally brilliant The Poisonwood Bible and Demon Copperhead amongst others. Lydia Bohusz is a young, naïve, supremely gifted pianist who leaves Appalachia for college where her prodigious musicality promises a brilliant future - until an affair and its subsequent aftermath dramatically changes the course of her life. This is Barbara Kingsolver writing at her most sublime. 

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