In this exquisite story of
family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself
far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With
humor and heart, she tells of growing up one of the few Asian
American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her
mother's particular, high expectations of her; of a painful
adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny
apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at
night, over heaping plates of food.
As
she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in
the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling
band--and meeting the man who would become her husband--her
Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the
life she wanted to live. It was her mother's diagnosis of terminal
cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with
her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language,
and history her mother had given her.
Vivacious
and plainspoken, lyrical and honest, Zauner's voice is as radiantly
alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that
will resonate widely, and complete with family photos, Crying in H
Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.