Crying in H Mart

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • From the indie rock sensation known as Japanese Breakfast, an unforgettable memoir about family, food, grief, love, and growing up Korean American. • "In losing her mother and cooking to bring her back to life, Zauner became herself.” —NPR

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.

“Poignant….A tender, well-rendered, heart-wrenching account of the way food ties us to those who have passed….Zauner’s ability to let us in through taste makes her book stand out.” Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

"Lyrical....Earnest....Zauner does a good job capturing the grief of losing a parent with pathos. Fans looking to get a glimpse into the inner life of this megawatt pop star will not be disappointed." Publishers Weekly

"Incandescent." Electric Lit

"Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift." Vogue

“Crying in H Mart powerfully maps a complicated mother-daughter relationship....Zauner writes about her mother’s death [with] clear-eyed frankness.” NPR

“A warm and wholehearted work of literature, an honest and detailed account of grief over time, studded with moments of hope, humor, beauty, and clear-eyed observation.... Crying in H Mart is not to be missed.” The Seattle Times

“A profound, timely exploration….Crying in H Mart will thrill Japanese Breakfast fans and provide comfort to those in the throes of loss while brilliantly detailing the colorful panorama of Korean culture, traditions and food.” San Francisco Chronicle

“Zauner’s storytelling is impeccable….Heartfelt, searching, wise.” AV Club

"A candid, moving tribute to her mother, to her identity, and to our collective desire for connection in this often alienating world." Refinery 29

"Crying in H Mart is palpable in its grief and its tenderness, reminding us what we all stand to lose." Vulture

“I read Crying in H Mart with my heart in my throat. In this beautifully written memoir, Michelle Zauner has created a gripping, sensuous portrait of an indelible mother-daughter bond that hits all the notes: love, friction, loyalty, grief. All mothers and daughters will recognize themselves — and each other — in these pages.” Dani Shapiro, author of Inheritance

“Michelle Zauner has written a book you experience with all of your senses: sentences you can taste, paragraphs that sound like music. She seamlessly blends stories of food and memory, sumptuousness and grief, to weave a complex narrative of loyalty and loss.” Rachel Syme

"Crying in H Mart is a wonder: A beautiful, deeply moving coming-of-age story about mothers and daughters, love and grief, food and identity. It blew me away, even as it broke my heart." Adrienne Brodeur, author of Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me

Michelle Zauner is best known as a singer and guitarist who creates dreamy, shoegaze-inspired indie pop under the name Japanese Breakfast. She has won acclaim from major music outlets around the world for releases like Psychopomp (2016) and Soft Sounds from Another Planet (2017).