Masterful. Completely engrossing. Impossible to put down. Those are the kinds of comments reviewers have given the highly-anticipated fourth novel by Korean American author Chang-rae Lee, whose The Surrendered hit bookstores this month. In his latest work, the opening scenes were apparently inspired by a real-life incident involving Lee’s father, who witnessed the violent death of his brother—his leg was severed by the wheels of a train—during the Korean War. “I’ve been haunted by that story since hearing it,” Lee wrote in an essay about the novel’s genesis. But he also says The Surrendered—which follows the narratives of a Korean orphan, an American GI and a missionary— is not so much a war novel as it is a story “concerned with the effects of mass conflict on the human psyche and spirit.”
A huge fan of Lee’s first novel, Native Speaker, I cannot wait to sink my eyes into his latest novel. And thanks to publisher Riverhead Books, five of you lucky readers have a chance to win a copy of The Surrendered! To enter, leave a comment on this post telling us your favorite Chang-rae Lee book. If you haven’t read one yet, tell us why you want to read his new one. The contest ends at 5 p.m. PST on Friday, March 19. Link to the giveaway on Twitter for an extra entry. (Leave another comment with your Twitter status.) Two entries max per person. Please make sure to leave a valid email address.
Earlier this month, KoreAm’s Eugene Yi spoke with Lee in New York as he was launching his book tour, and that interview will be published in our April issue—you won’t want to miss it! If you also want a chance to meet this award-winning novelist, here are his upcoming book tour dates:
March 17: Los Angeles@ Vroman’s Bookstore, 7 p.m.
March 18: San Diego @ Warwick’s, 7:30 p.m.
March 19: San Francisco @ Books, Inc. (Opera Plaza), 6 p.m.
March 20: Corte Madera, CA @ Book Passage, 2 p.m.
March 23: Minneapolis, MN @ Barnes and Noble-Edina, 7 p.m.
March 24: Ann Arbor, MI @ Borders, 7 p.m.
March 25: Atlanta, GA @ The Carter Center (Sponsored by A Cappella Books) 7 p.m.
April 1: Princeton, NJ @ Barnes & Noble-Princeton, 7 p.m.
April 8: Albany: New York Writers Institute, 8 p.m.
April 22: Kansas City: Kansas City Public Library, 6:30 p.m.
