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About The Evening Hero
Dr. Yungman Kwak is in the twilight of his life. Every day for the last fifty years, he has brushed his teeth, slipped on his shoes, and headed to Horse Breath’s General Hospital, where, as an obstetrician, he treats the women and babies of the small rural Minnesota town he chose to call home.
This was the life he longed for. The so-called American dream. He immigrated from Korea after the Korean War, forced to leave his family, ancestors, village, and all that he knew behind. But his life is built on a lie. And one day, a letter arrives that threatens to expose it.
Yungman’s life is thrown into chaos–the hospital abruptly closes, his wife refuses to spend time with him, and his son is busy investing in a struggling health start-up. Yungman faces a choice–he must choose to hide his secret from his family and friends or confess and potentially lose all he’s built. He begins to question the very assumptions on which his life is built–the so-called American dream, with the abject failure of its healthcare system, patient and neighbors who perpetuate racism, a town flawed with infrastructure, and a history that doesn’t see him in it.
Acclaim for The Evening Hero
“THE EVENING HERO is a beautiful, lush, moving story of family, of Korean and American history, of the legacy of war, and of the trauma of displacement. With great wit and humanity, it skewers the medical-industrial complex and the deep inequity of contemporary America. But most of all this novel is a tender, complex, vivid portrait of Yungman, the indelible Evening Hero.”
"Heartfelt and keenly observed, THE EVENING HERO casts an urgent and insightful gaze on lived identity, positioned precariously at the intersection of past and future, homeland and adopted home."
About Finding My Voice
Seventeen-year-old Ellen Sung just wants to be like everyone else at her all-white school. But the racist bullies of Arkin, Minnesota, will never let her forget that she’s different—the youngest member of the only Korean-American family in town. At the start of senior year, Ellen finds herself falling for Tomper Sandel, a football player who is popular and blond and undeniably cute . . . and to her surprise, he falls for her, too. Now Ellen has a chance at life she never imagined, one that defies the expectations of hanging out with her core group of friends or pleasing her parents. But is her romance with Tomper strong enough to withstand hometown bigotry and her family’s disapproval?
Acclaim for Finding My Voice
“Honestly rendered, and never didactic, the story allows readers first to flinch in recognition and then to look into their own hearts.”
"This isn’t just a beautifully written coming-of-age romance about a high school senior's final months in her small, racist hometown — it’s also widely considered the first contemporary-set YA novel with an Asian American protagonist, written by an Asian American author"
“A quintessential teen book about trying to navigate high school and find some semblance of belonging . . . I am so happy that Finding My Voice is finding new life for a whole new generation of readers.”
The Evening Hero 2022
The Evening Hero, a new novel by Marie Myung-OK Lee about rural hospital closures, anti-Asian racism, and how war trauma seeps into everyday life for an immigrant – themes that have become suddenly more urgent and topical.
Saying Goodbye (1993)
In this sequel to FINDING MY VOICE, Ellen Sung arrives at Harvard for her freshman year. There she begins to explore her independence by taking a creative writing course in addition to her pre-med classes, finding a new boyfriend, a Korean-American, and becoming close friends with her African-American roommate.
If It Hadn't Been for Yoon Jun (1995)
Adopted as a baby, 12-year-old Alice Larsen is of Korean heritage but feels 100% American. Then Yoon Jun, a Korean immigrant, moves to her small Minnesota town, and Alice’s parents start pressuring her to make friends with the strange new boy as a way to get in touch with her heritage. Alice resists–what would her friends think? Anyway, she’s American. But when she and Yoon Jun are assigned to work together on a school project, she learns about KoreaIand about doing the right thing.
Necessary Roughness (1996)
Chan Kim has never felt like an outsider in his life. That is, not until his family moves from L.A. to a tiny town in Minnesota–Land of 10,000 Lakes–and probably 10,000 hicks,too. The Kims are the only Asian family in town, and when Chan and his twin sister, Young, attend high school, it’s a blond-haired, blue-eyed whiteout.Chan throws himself into the only game in town–football–and the necessary roughness required to make a player. On the field it means “justifiable violence,” but as Chan is about to discover, off the field it’s a whole different ballgame.
F Is For Fabuloso (1999)
The sky had not yet begun to lighten, and Jin-Ha could see hard fingers of frost pressing on her window, outlined by the light from the streetlamp. She wanted to stay in her warm bed and never come out. Being cold — and knowing you were going to be even colder before you got any warmer — was the worst feeling.
Seventh grader Jin-Ha finds her adjustment to life in America complicated by her mother’s difficulty in learning to speak English.
Somebody's Daughter (2005)
Somebody’s Daughter is the story of nineteen-year-old Sarah Thorson, who was adopted as a baby by a Lutheran couple in the Midwest. After dropping out of college, she decides to study in Korea and becomes more and more intrigued by her Korean heritage, eventually embarking on a crusade to find her birth mother. Paralleling Sarah’s story is that of Kyung-sook, who was forced by difficult circumstances to let her baby be swept away from her immediately after birth, but who has always longed for her lost child.
To schedule Marie
Speaking agent:
Leslie Shipma,
The Shipman Agency
914.391.6905
For Finding My Voice publicity:
Alexa Wejko
awejko@sohopress.com
The Evening Hero Publicity:
Shannon Hennessey
Shannon.hennessey@simonandschuster.com
Nicole Dewey
nicole@deweydecimalmedia.com