Min Jin Lee says early illness warning pushed her to quit law and write final novel in 'Korean trilogy'

Nearly a decade after Pachinko — which sold about 5 million copies and was adapted for Apple TV — Korean‑American author Min Jin Lee has published American Hagwon, the closing volume of a trilogy she began with Free Food for Millionaires. Lee says a hepatitis B diagnosis in her youth and warnings about future liver cancer prompted her to leave a legal career and devote herself to fiction.

Min Jin Lee, the Korean‑American novelist whose 2017 book Pachinko sold roughly 5 million copies and was later adapted for television, has published American Hagwon, the final instalment of what she calls her "Korean trilogy." The author, now 57, spoke by video call from her Harlem home, where floor‑to‑ceiling bookshelves formed the backdrop to the conversation.

A decisive break from law

Lee said the decision to abandon a corporate law career came early. In 1995, while in her mid‑20s, she left a steady job and the associated healthcare at a time when she had been warned repeatedly about her health after being diagnosed as a hepatitis B carrier as a teenager. "I thought, if I’m going to die, I’m going to write a book first," she said of the choice to pursue fiction rather than remain in a profession that offered financial stability.

Writing under a shadow of illness

Her diagnosis, and the prediction from doctors that she was at high risk of developing liver cancer in her 20s or 30s, shaped her ambitions. "I was told so many times that I was going to get sicker and sicker, that I’ve always felt that if I can get a really good book out then I’m done," Lee said, describing how the prospect of limited time intensified her focus on producing work she considered meaningful.

Completing a trilogy

American Hagwon arrives nearly ten years after Pachinko and follows Free Food for Millionaires, published in 2007. Lee has described the three novels collectively as a exploration of history, family and migration; the new book serves as the concluding chapter of that project. Pachinko’s international success and subsequent screen adaptation in 2022 raised Lee’s public profile, and the publication of the new novel brings renewed attention to the arc she has traced across the three books.

Lee appeared in good health during the interview and spoke about ambition and legacy from her home in New York. She framed the trilogy not only as a literary endeavour but as a personal response to the warnings and expectations that influenced the course of her life and career.