Minbak

by Ela Lee

*A RADIO 2 WINTER BOOK CLUB PICK*

A sweeping story of three generations of women who cross continents and decades to find truth, forgiveness and compassion.

Incheon, 1985. A nameless baby is born in a minbak in South Korea and vanishes nine days later.

London, 2008. When tragedy strikes, Hana faces ruin. She is forced to move her family – her teenage daughter Ada and ailing mother Youngja – into a single room with her, converting the rest of their home into a minbak, in a painful echo of her past life.

In the confined space of their shared room, there is nowhere to hide. As the past collides with the present, all three women are forced to face not only their family’s dark history, but that of an entire country.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Asia

352 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 5, 2026

About the author

Ela Lee's debut novel JADED was published in 2024 by Vintage in the UK and Simon & Schuster in the US. It was an Amazon Best Fiction Book of the Year, and Lee was named a Spotify Breakout Author. She has also been selected for Forbes 30 under 30, class of 2025. Her second novel MINBAK publishes in March 2026, and has been selected for BBC Radio 2 Book Club. Her newsletter Elaborate can be found at elalee.substack.com

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this and messaged my mum and my amah straightaway.

What an incredibly powerful book taking on a story which spans decades, pain from a thousand words left unsaid, and the love which ties family and home so inextricably together. I loved Ela Lee's debut novel Jaded and quickly fell in love with Minbak, drawn in by complex relationships between mother and daughter, and a secret so heavy it burdens our characters decades later. I couldn't put this book down and it has lingered on my mind ever since I finished it.

Youngja (grandmother), Hana, (mother) and Ada (daughter) are forced to open their house as a minbak (boarding house) and live in one room due to financial hardship. All have a POV in this story which straddles two time periods South Korea 1985 and London 2008. We see how Hana grew up, her ambition and dreams which had to be put on hold when her family needed her to work at the minbak and all that happens after. The choices which were made as a result of societal pressures and duty to family all lead up to who Hana is today, still harbouring a deep sadness despite her life now in the UK.

I particularly loved how this didn't shy away from exploring complex family relationships and the love that is shown by a mother which doesn't necessarily come with words but in action and small gestures. How people you love can make mistakes while also trying to do what they think is best for you. I felt like I was holding my breath throughout this book until the secrets started to stream out. My heart was in my throat, I couldn't see the pages through tears, and all I wanted to do was hold these women who had been through so much but were still so strong.

Ada is the youngest character in the book and where she could've easily got lost in the story, the author really made her arc work alongside the her mother and her grandmother. I found my heart breaking for her constantly throughout this book. How she wrestles with pleasing her mother, moulding herself into what she thinks her mother needs, feeling close to her culture through her mother and grandmother but also feeling wholly inadequate when faced with all she doesn't know and hasn't experienced. May that be writing in the language or not knowing Korean history that her grandmother has lived through.

'Ada thought of Magna Carta. Of Normans and Plantagenets. York and Tudor. The English Reformation, all six of Henry's downtrodden wives. Suffrage. Austrian archdukes, kaisers and tsars. Hitler, Mussolini, Churchill, Roosevelt.

And then what? A great big blank over the war that raised the grandmother she loved?'

5 stars. Love love love. This story also leaves the door open for you to look into more about the illegal adoption of Korean children to countries around the world, which I had no idea about. The author also cites all her research at the end of the book.

[suzannah ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow, what a gorgeous book. one that has cemented ela lee as one of my new favourite authors. i absolutely loved her debut novel, jaded, and now minbak has blown me away too. just gorgeous writing and really powerful storytelling.

[Lau · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm still trying to articulate my feelings upon finishing this book. It was.. remarkable, profoundly heartbreaking. A multi-generational trauma that feels like a stab to my heart with every page I turn.
Each woman in this story has been hurt, lied to, loved, and sacrificed themselves for the sake of others. It's painful to read about, I shed tears and had to pause a couple of times just to take everything in.

Hana, who I initially thought was heartless and selfish for reacting the way she did, turns out she has just been dealing with her pain the way she knows how to. Youngja, the grief and regret literally eats up alive that she has to live the rest of her lives with only fragments of memories. Ada, the good girl, moulding herself into a perfect daughter so Hana wouldn't leave.. and everything is just deeper than what it seems from the outside.

I think this book will stick with me for a long time. I fell in love with the writer's writing and would love to read her debut novel, which unfortunately I haven't already done prior to discovering this book. One of my best reads of 2026.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

[Terry Rudge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I expect this book to win awards during 2026

Minbak by Ela Lee is a quietly powerful novel that unfolds with patience and emotional clarity. At its core, this story is deeply rooted in culture and how it is preserved, strained, and reshaped across generations. I loved that Lee explored everything in depth but showed fragility in doing so.

What surprised me most was the beauty of the love in this book. The love of family through every challenge, showing that love is also complicated, imperfect, and often unspoken. Lee captures how love can exist alongside disappointment and distance, which made the relationships feel especially real

The shifting time periods do take some getting used to. While the transitions eventually add richness and perspective, there were moments early on where I had to pause and reorient myself.

Though there were places where I wished certain emotional threads had been explored a bit more deeply, Minbak remains a thoughtful and beautiful read. I enjoyed this book greatly

[Sahar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Vintage for the proof of one of my most anticipated reads of the year. I read Jaded when it came out and absolutely adored the writing and how honest and raw Ela’s writing was.

Minbak is a beautifully written, multigenerational story set between London and Korea. The authors ability to take the reader on a journey and weave the past and present together seamlessly blew me away.

Characters are introduced who provide context and I loved that there is no filler, everyone has a purpose. There are no wasted words or chapters. I enjoyed everyone’s perspective- sometimes with a multi perspective story I prefer one characters POV to another’s but that didn’t happen here.

This is written with a lot of heart and it’ll will stay with me for a long time.

[Marzieh · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[alex alderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

★★★★★
#pr — gifted

𝙩𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙪𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙩 𝙧𝙤𝙤𝙢, 𝙗𝙤𝙞𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙖𝙣 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖 𝙘𝙪𝙥 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙚𝙖. 𝙗𝙤𝙩𝙝 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙛𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙙 𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧.

once again, ela lee brings a CORKER of a novel with 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗯𝗮𝗸. effortless storytelling mixed with vibrant, memorable characters, made this book so very good, and one of my top reads of 2025 🏆

after reading and loving 𝗷𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗱 last year (review posted on my grid, ★★★★½) I was super keen to read ela’s next book and had my hopes set high… and boy, this book delivered. grief, loss, heartbreak, displacement, secrets, lies, generational trauma + the things we do for the ones we love. and I’m BARELY scratching the surface here!! it’s unbelievable what ela covers in this book.

𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐭: three generations of women cross continents and decades to find truth, forgiveness and compassion. tragedy strikes mother and daughter, hana and ada, while they are living in london, and they are forced to convert their house into a minbak. youngja, hana’s mother, moves in with them and as her dementia settles deeper, the three women must face their family’s dark history and the life-shattering secret of an entire country, long overdue its exposure.

read if you like:

📕 multigenerational fiction novels
📕 truly gorgeous + tender writing that moves you
📕 authors who consistently deliver great new reads

*huge thank you to penguin vintage + ela for sending me an advanced proof, I cannot wait for everyone to read this wonderful novel and fall in love with ada, hana + youngja (coming march 2026!) 🫶

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

All I can say is WOW!
This is an emotional story following three generations of Korean women - a story filled with trauma, grief and compassion.
I thought it was beautifully written, moving from the past in 1980s to 2008 and capturing a very complicated time in Korean history. I thought the characters were written well and I liked being able to feel the emotion from each one of them - even those characters who only had a minor role.
I was hooked from the start and had to fight back tears at some points! I'm so glad I had the chance to read it.

Thank you Random House UK, Vintage & NetGalley for the advanced copy!

[Robert Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Minbak, Ela Lee’s second novel, starts as a dark personal story but slowly opens out to reveal a national tragedy. The story takes as its centre three generations of women who circle around an event kept secret for many years. The “minbak” of the title is a Korean word for a family-run boarding house or guest house. The plot will oscillate between two of these in different time periods as the secrets slowly come to light.
The main plot opens in London in 2008. Hana has just lost her husband and soon finds things are much worse than that as he dies with serious debts that he accrued through the global financial crisis. In order to make ends meet Hana decides to turn her house into a minbak, she moves her mother Youngja out of care and together with teenage daughter Ada moves into a single room of the house while renting out the other rooms to Korean tourists and visitors. This way of living reflects her young adulthood in the mid 1980s in Incheon, living and working in the minbak run by her mother. The narration will drop back often to this time and place and the impact of events there on Hana and Youngja. All three women have secrets and their close living arrangements and Youngja’s dementia, where she confuses her granddaughter for her daughter, start to bring the secrets from that earlier time to the surface.
Minbak is a beautifully observed novel of three generations of women, the differences between them but also some of the resonances of their past and present. Each is a slight step further from their Korean heritage – Ada was born in England to a Korean mother and English father, Hana came to England as a young adult and her mother Youngja only came later in life as neither of Hana’s siblings would care for her. So their experience and understanding of the central mystery in this book is very different.
But Minbak is more than just the story of one family. At first it is unclear why Lee drops in short chapters from the point-of-view of very minor characters in terms of the main story. But slowly it comes clear that she has a bigger story that she wants to tell. And that is the story of the large scale exporting of Korean babies for adoption, particularly to the United States, in the 1980s. This puts the story of Youngja and Hana into the context of a much larger, almost industrial, process which fed off the social pressure for women not to try and be single mothers.
Minbak works on a number of levels. It is first and foremost an emotionally resonant tale of three women coming to terms with both their past and their present. But it also exposes the South Korean adoption industry of the 1980s which saw possibly thousands of babies sold to parents overseas and evidence of their parentage either hidden or destroyed. But while the subject matter is dark and poignant, Lee also celebrates her protagonists and focusses on the importance of their connection to each other and their resilience.

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a good family saga, and this was excellent.  I found it more accomplished than Jaded, by the same author, and I loved the three characters - Hana, a somewhat mysterious young woman, keeps to herself, left Korea in the 1980s; her daughter Ada, half British, half Korean; and Hana's mother Youngja who lives with them in London and has dementia.  Hana's husband has just died and Ada is trying to understand her mother better, but the key isn't in 2008 Richmond, it's in 1985 Korea under military dictatorship.  
It was well written and enjoyable, a solid historical fiction. The relationship between Hana and her mother Youngja was really moving, complex and interesting,  and I loved the chapters written from Youngja's perspective, I think an unreliable narrator isn't always easy to pull off but Ela Lee did it superbly. I'll definitely read what she writes next.

Free ARC sent by Netgalley. 

[Bintbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

“The sun rose, the seasons rolled, the moon hugged the planet, powerful men plotted their great design. Ordinary families played like pawns.”

“Deep in her subterranean, she had already learned to be loved for what she could do, more than who she was.”

“Same old, all across the globe. Women exaggerated into whores, victims or saints. Nothing changes if nothing changes.”

“We all have our stories, every single one of us.”

“Home wasn’t a place. It was your people.”

Through the perspective of three women, Lee illustrates how a choice made in one timeline (made to ameliorate a problem) affects the generations to come. Especially when said choice is made a time of political unrest.

The way books can transport us to worlds and histories that we weren’t privy to - Is just so awe inducing. It’s also then difficult to know that people have suffered so much in the different corners of world, their plight stifled from the masses. A bittersweet feeling really.

I won’t say much about the narrative because going in blind, really sucked me into the story and caused me to contemplate the book’s quiet intensity about a common yet intricate issue.

[Ary アリ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in a non-sequential plot across a few decades from the 80s to early 2000s, Minbak follows the story of 3 generations of women, Young-ja, her daughter, Hana and granddaughter, Ada. It tells the story of Hana, growing up during the Korea uprisings, and American influences through its Christian mercenaries, industrialisation and economy in the 80s.

The author, being half Korean uses an abundant number of Korean words, some are already widely known eg. minbak, banchan etc. while some need assistance from Google translate. As someone who has read similar premise of the hardship of early Korea especially during the wars, the themes continued by the author from various other sides like rising from dictator leadership and the resultance of America in shaping Korea we see today.

While I generally do not have an issue with the non-linear storytelling, jumping back and forth across decades, transitions between scenes felt uneven and abrupt for me. I occasionally found myself having to reread the pages a few times for clarity.

Despite it all, Minbak is a perfect pick for the month of #KoreanMarch and #Womenhistorymonth with the themes of women empowerment in a patriarchal society in Korea.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

[Nicola · Rating 3 out of 5]

A multi-generational family story following three women between South Korea in 1985 and London 2008. Set in a boarding house the story is followed with guilt, resilience and family secrets.

What I Struggled With:
⭐️ The characters felt somewhat flat, and some of the narratives came across as boring.

⭐️ I enjoyed learning about South Korean culture, but at times it felt as though certain parts were presented in a non-fiction style rather than through storytelling. (I think with further editing and maybe a change from 3rd person to 1st person narrative may have worked better here).

What I Loved:
⭐️ The exploration of the fine line between a mother making a decision for herself and one that is truly in her child’s best interest.

⭐️ The family secrets were written incredibly well. The sense of the unknown created a chilling atmosphere throughout the story, especially as the characters felt so disconnected from one another.

⭐️ The themes of Alzheimer’s, young pregnancy, and shame.

Even though I wasn’t completely engrossed in this book and probably won’t be thinking about it much in the near future, I still think the story is worth reading. I’ve seen many raving reviews about it, so my opinion may just be an unpopular one. 😀

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Minbak is a beautifully written multi-generational novel which covers many important themes. This is my first novel by Ela Lee but I will certainly read more. I particularly enjoyed the exploration of female generational relationships within a cultural lens.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.

[Malika · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow, what a wonderful book

[amaareads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of advance copy received from Netgalley

4.5 stars for emotionally destroying me by intergenerational trauma and Korean boarding houses

This is the story of three Korean women crammed into one room in 2008 London: teenage Ada, her secretive mother Hana, and ailing grandmother Youngja running a minbak (boarding house) out of their home because tragedy struck and life said "suffer beautifully." But it's also 1985 South Korea, dictatorship era, where teen Hana gets yanked out of school to work at her family's boarding house and her whole future gets swallowed by family obligation, shame, and a nameless baby who vanishes after nine days. The dual timeline weaves between these moments, and it's giving "generational secrets unraveling in the most devastating slow burn possible."

Scenes that absolutely wrecked me:

The 1985 sections where Hana is literally just a bright girl with dreams, stuck running a minbak while South Korea's military chaos hums in the background, watching students and factory workers pass through like glimpses of lives she'll never have? That longing, that quiet suffocation.... it hit WAY too close, and I was reading this at work pretending my eyes weren't doing that stinging thing. I was obsessed with the cramped single-room dynamic in 2008 London where all three women are forced to exist in proximity with nowhere to hide from each other's resentment, grief, and unspoken rage. And Ada, desperately trying to piece together her mother's past like a detective but also just a teen who wants to KNOW her own family, had me in my feelings constantly.

Why it's a 4.5 and not a full 5??

Look, this book is stunning, lyrical, tender, utterly devastating in the best literary fiction way. But it's also SLOW, like "meditative character study" slow, and sometimes I just wanted someone to SAY THE THING instead of circling it for thirty pages in beautiful, painful prose. The pacing occasionally felt like it was prioritizing atmosphere over momentum, and while I respect the craft, there were moments I was like "bestie, I am READY for the revelation, please." Also, this is not a "feel-good" read, it's about misunderstandings, heartbreak, choices that haunt you across decades, and the specific kind of immigrant grief that sits in your chest forever, so if you're expecting comfort, maybe grab tissues and emotional support instead.

Ultimately, this is a masterclass in empathy, a love letter to the Korean women erased from history books, and an achingly real portrait of mothers and daughters failing and loving each other in equal measure. I closed it feeling hollowed out but also weirdly grateful, like I'd been trusted with something precious and painful, which is exactly what intergenerational storytelling should feel like. (And also like I needed to go home and call my mum immediately.)

[Books Before Bs · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Minbak’ by Ela Lee is a gem of a novel. Elegant, deeply moving, and quietly powerful. I could spend days discussing it, dedicate tomes to enthusing over its subtle brilliance, but all I really need to say is this: Read it!

The plot is simple. In Incheon, South Korea, in the 1980s, after falling on hard times, a family is forced to turn their home into a minbak—a guesthouse. Twenty years later, following a tragedy, the daughter of that family finds herself recreating the arrangement in London, this time with her teenage daughter and her ageing mother, who is living with Alzheimer’s. With three generations of women sharing one room, the past echoes through the present, leading to secrets being revealed and old wounds confronted. There are no shocks or big twists. Even the most dramatic moments retain a quiet subtlety. The novel’s beauty lies in its relationships, its characters’ lived experiences, and its thoughtful exploration of love, grief, memory, and identity.

Lee’s prose is simple yet vivid. A line such as “He was a smile surrounded by a person” perfectly captures her precision and economy. The characters are beautifully realised, with each feeling real and distinct, while the shifts across voices and time unfold with impressive fluidity. Equally notable is how the novel engages with numerous themes without ever feeling crowded or imbalanced. Coming-of-age narratives, the immigrant experience, kindnesses wrapped in betrayals, and the complexity of mother-daughter relationships—all are given their due weight; all weave together seamlessly.

‘Minbak’ really is a special book—one that lingers long after the final page, and one I am certain to return to. For readers drawn to Korean literature and multi-generational narratives—particularly those centred on mothers and daughters—it is a must-read.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Ela Lee and Harvill for the ARC.

⚠️ Death of parent, death of a child, grief, racism, disordered eating

[Booksblabbering || Cait❣️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whilst not as accusatory and powerfully raw as Lee’s debut, this is a multigenerational story that is internally emotional and destabilising.

1985, Incheon, Hana, a young girl is forced to abandon her education to work in her family’s minbak (a guesthouse in a private home) during a turbulent time in South Korea’s society.
2008, London: now a mother, Hana is forced to move her teenage daughter, Ada, and her own forgetting mother, into a single room, transforming their home into a minbak to survive.

Simply put, this is an exploration on memory, reflection, and quiet, unshared suffering.

A stolen schoolgirl, replaced by a working girl, replaced by a wife. A stolen schoolgirl, replaced by a working girl, replaced by a wife.

Hana spends her life trying to achieve something more feeling cheated for reasons explored in the heartbreaking novel that turns a naive, hopeful girl into a hardened, fragile woman (oxymoronic, I know).

Ada, a second generation immigrant, feeling half of a person. Desperate to fit in, desperate to please her mother and care for her grandmother, desperate for external affirmation.

The writing is soft and beautiful and compulsively readable.

I wish this had delved more into the impact of society on each women. This tale is very internal which means we get raw inner reflections, but we miss bigger ripples.

Similarly, the characters are trapped in a similar, repetitive thought cycle slowing down momentum and emotional resonance.
I kept waiting for a confrontation or climax.

If you go in expecting a slow, generational character study akin to a more internal Pachinko; you will be satisfied.

Physical arc gifted by Vintage, Penguin Books.

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[Lily Cloud · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently finished Minbak by Ela Lee and it is definitely one of those stories that stays with you long after you close the final page. I loved the way it explores the "paper orphan" history of South Korea is both eye opening and incredibly heartbreaking.

The book manages to take a massive national scandal and make it feel so personal through the lives of three generations of women. It is a heavy read but the writing is so beautiful that you find yourself flying through the chapters despite the difficult subject matter.

One thing I really appreciated was how the author used the physical space of the minbak to build tension. Having three women living in a single room in London while renting out the rest of the house felt so suffocating and realistic. It forced all their secrets to come to the surface because there was literally nowhere else for them to go. The lack of privacy acted like a pressure cooker for the plot and made the eventual revelations feel earned rather than forced.

The characters of Hana and Ada were especially well drawn and their complicated relationship felt very authentic to the immigrant experience. Hana is so guarded and silent about her past which is frustrating but you eventually understand it is her way of surviving.

Seeing Ada try to piece together her family history from fragments of her grandmother’s fading memory was one of the most moving parts of the book. It really captures that specific feeling of trying to understand a heritage that your parents are trying to protect you from.

This is a powerful piece of literary fiction that I would recommend to anyone who likes complex family sagas or historical mysteries. It is a haunting look at how the choices of the past can travel across oceans and show up on your doorstep decades later.

[Martina Capodanno · Rating 5 out of 5]

I signed up to GoodReads just so I could shout about this book.

This story is a perfect example of why I love reading historical fiction, especially when it's so exquisitely written and full of heart.
First of all, it usually takes me a fair chunk of the story in order to feel attached and invested in the characters, but on page 10 of this story I was quietly weeping, already so completely sold, and the familiar feeling of wanting to protect a fictional character was very welcome.
We follow the story of three generations of women, and a combination of born & raised, born & displaced, and not-born in Korea.
The story explores the unfairness of working women kept away from education. It explores the dynamic of ostracism and isolation. It taught me so much about the Babies Exodus of South Korea, born in the face of economical and societal hardship and witnessed by all those who survived occupation, war and dictatorships. Morphed later into something horrific, exploitative and profit-driven.
Different people will relate to different characters. For me, this book was a masterpiece, a perfect exercise in empathy and survival.
The writing felt sure-footed and emotional. Not a lot of how our protagonists are feeling is left between the lines for you to pick up, it's all laid bare and raw. Whether you like this or not is a matter of taste. It didn't feel tell-not-show, to me. It was beautiful.

I'll add that multiple PoV chapters is something I love, but additional chapters from the point of view of marginal characters are a hard thing to do correctly, as they can feel like padding if not done well, but can enrich the story if well written and purposeful. So happy that in this case, it was the latter.

I read this back in January on NetGalley and I wish I could read it again for the first time.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mlle Alice, pouvez-vous nous raconter votre rencontre avec Minbak ?
   "J'avais déjà vu passer le premier roman de l'autrice, Jaded, qui me tentait beaucoup même si je n'ai pas encore eu l'occasion de l'ajouter à ma PAL. Celui-ci, c'est grâce à Netgalley que je l'ai découvert et que j'ai pu le lire."

Dites-nous en un peu plus sur son histoire...
   "Entre le présent à Londres et la fin des années 80 en Corée, nous suivons trois générations de femmes avec leurs joies, leurs peines et leurs secrets..."

Mais que s'est-il exactement passé entre vous ?
   "Le roman est efficace pour nous attirer dans ses filets dès les premières pages et il devient très difficile de le reposer. Il est plein de secrets et de non-dits mais pas seulement. L'autrice ne se repose pas là-dessus pour nous entraîner avec elle parce qu'après tout, il est assez facile de deviner sur quel chemin on s'engage. Mais tout de suite, j'ai voulu savoir comment Hana allait s'en sortir et comment ses trois femmes pourraient surmonter les blessures du passé pour affronter les épreuves du présent. J'ai aimé en découvrir plus aussi sur un sujet de société, marquant dans l'histoire de la Corée, que je n'avais pas encore vu abordé en littérature (et que je ne préciserai pas pour ne pas vous spoiler). La seule chose qui m'a un peu gênée, au-delà du changement d'époque, c'est le changement de narrateur constant, j'avais parfois du mal à savoir où et quand on était. Et puis, si ça aide à appréhender le contexte, ça n'apportera pas grand chose, et j'aurais préféré que d'autres parties, comme celle d'Ada, soient plus approfondies."

Et comment cela s'est-il fini ?
   "Comme souvent en littérature coréenne, nous sommes plutôt sur une fin douce amère, réaliste, qu'une happy end. J'aurais voulu ne pas les quitter si vite et qu'on suive encore quelques temps Youngja, Hana et Ada."

[Dima · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book follows three generations of South Korean women, moving between 1985 Incheon and 2008 London. The central character is Hana, Youngja’s daughter and Ada’s mother. In 2008 she lives a diminished, half-life, and a personal tragedy forces long-buried wounds to reopen and, slowly, begin to heal. Ada, fifteen, is caught between her South Korean heritage—about which she has been told very little—and her contemporary life in London as the child of a mixed family. Youngja, in 2008, is slowly losing her memories, yet must confront a difficult decision she made for her daughter in 1985, a choice that has continued to haunt her even as her faculties fade.

The book approaches a national tragedy through an intimate, personal lens. It is difficult to discuss this without giving away too much, but I learned a great deal and was struck by the scale and recency of the events it depicts.

Overall, I liked the book. It is well written, with vivid characters and an engaging plot that held my interest even if it never truly gripped me. Still, something felt missing. The story, serving as a vessel for a broader agenda, sometimes felt clinically executed, with insufficient depth given to the overarching narrative. It also lacked the emotional urgency and complexity I expected; the emotions were described clearly, yet I rarely felt them. Compared with a work like Pachinko, this story feels comparatively muted.

I recommend it to readers interested in modern South Korean history, especially the experiences of South Korean women in the latter half of the twentieth century. Without its illuminating historical focus, I might have suggested skipping it. 3.5* rounded up.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Nish · Rating 4 out of 5]

"How many times has the world shattered between us?”

Ela Lee’s Minbak left me absolutely breathless. This multigenerational story of three Korean women—each fighting to hold onto truth, compassion, and survival—felt like having my heart cracked open and carefully rearranged.

Hana, Youngja, and Ada move through the world carrying different burdens, yet their pain echoes across time. Hana’s struggle gutted me: a young woman desperate to honour the labels she’s claimed for herself—student, lover, mother—only to learn that life doesn’t always honour the plans we cling to. Youngja’s chapters quietly devastated me too, watching her memories slip as age and labour wear her down day by day. And Ada, caught between duty and identity, trying to care for her grandmother while stepping into a new school that forces her to unlearn everything she thought she knew about being a girl.

And then there’s Park Yohan. My heart hurt for him in ways I didn’t expect. Trying to learn his outcome had me on tenterhooks... until that ending shattered me completely. I didn’t think the book could crush me any further… and then it did.

All of this unfolds against the backdrop of Korea’s civil unrest—how it affects the lives of those that form its past, present, and future. The political becomes personal, and the personal becomes generational.

Ela Lee has crafted something bold and necessary here. A unique premise, a powerful emotional core, and a reminder of how history shapes the women (and men) who survive it. I’m still in shock from this read, and honestly, I’m still piecing myself back together.

Everyone needs to pick this one up.

Thank you @netgalley @vintagebooks for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest, unedited review.

[Neha Garg (thereadingowl_) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Minbak is a multi-generational family saga tracing the lives of Yeongja, Hana, and Ada. Spanning years and continents, this multi-POV account delves into the mother-daughter relationship as they grapple with a secret from the past. The backdrop is that of a changing South Korean politics and how the civil war during the 1980s led to a dark chapter of its history where kids were exported for adoption like common goods. Swipe pictures to see the full synopsis.

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My favourite part of the book is the writing. Ela writes beautifully and each sentence is like art in itself. Through her words, the two Minbaks come alive, bursting with love, tension, and secrets. The way Ela writes about family is very tender but it does not shy away from the harsh parts either.

The plot is kind of predictable but the execution kept it fresh. My heart went out to the three women whose lives are all short-lived happiness followed by immeasurable pain. But I was glad that they had each other through this. I especially loved how Ada takes care of her grandmother and is very emotionally mature at a young age to know what secrets to keep boxed up. Yeongja’s fading memory was another thing that tugged at me and all I wanted was to go & soothe her even though I couldn't forgive her for her decisions as a mother.

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I would definitely recommend it for people who love reading family sagas with real & flawed women characters. Be mindful that it explores themes of motherhood & immigration, so it can be emotionally overwhelming at times. But I hope you’ll pick it up and love it as much as I did.

So happy that this was my first pick for March in celebration of #KoreanMarch / #ManseMarch

[Febe Ferro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Minbak is a sorrow-strong, intergenerational story that stretches from war-stricken Korea, through the suffocating years of dictatorship, and into 2000s London — carrying its women, and their wounds, across decades and continents.

Told through three distinct perspectives, this is a novel about inheritance — not of money or land, but of silence, sacrifice, trauma, and the impossible expectations placed on daughters. I was slightly nervous about the multiple POVs going in, but they worked more beautifully than I could have hoped. Each voice felt necessary. Each timeline deepened the others.

Hana isn’t always easy to love — and I think that’s precisely the point. Her sharp edges, her distance, her contradictions all feel born of something older than her. The same can be said for the other two women: one watching her own mind begin to fray, the other trying desperately to understand who she is in the space between cultures and histories. None of them are simple. All of them are heartbreakingly human.

The writing is restrained but piercing — never melodramatic, yet heavy with what is left unsaid. I learned so much while reading, particularly about the expatriation of babies, a history I wasn’t fully aware of before. It’s the kind of novel that quietly educates while it devastates.

This is a story about survival. About what we pass down without meaning to. About the cost of reinvention.

If you love character-driven literary fiction that interrogates identity, memory, and generational trauma — this one lingers.

[whatzoreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its only as I’ve got older that I’ve realised how much history we carry in our bones, not just our memories, the inherited, the unspoken, handed down from generation to generation.

Minbak lives in that tender, unsettled ache between what we choose to forget and what we’re forced to remember. The book centres around the cramped rooms of The Minbak, a Korean boarding house, from Incheon South Korean to Wimbledon, South West London, women of the same family sheltering under one roof, sharing the same secrets, grief, displacement, and a love the refuses neat closure. The silence speaks as loud as any lacking confession, as you sit inside the weight of what could have been.

This book will feel like an echo if you’ve ever felt torn between your heritage and your present, if you’ve absorbed the unspoken grief of the adults who raised you, or if you’ve ever wondered what parts of your past you might be passing on without choosing?

If you savour reflective, character rich stories that bridge cultures and generations, and you appreciate novels that feel more like a quiet conversation opposed to a dramatic climax, Minbak is a book that will sit with you long after the last page.

Thank you to Vintage books for choosing me as an early reader in exchange for my honest thoughts. This left a pain in my chest that feels very much like heartbreak.

[Lisa Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an emotional and powerful read. Exposing family secrets and those of an entire nation.

Set in Korea and London across three generations it explores the relationships of mother daughter and granddaughter with three POVs. Delving into the women’s histories, secrets, silence, and the complicated bonds between mothers and daughters.

The story of a baby dropped off at an orphanage who then disappears in 1985, is heartbreaking and gradually unfurls throughout the book. Then there’s the other hardships the women deal with, moving to London and being forced to live together in one cramped room after tragedy upends their lives as they must use their home as a Minbak (Korean for guesthouse) to make ends meet.

The writing is restrained but deeply emotional, revealing trauma in fragments rather than huge hits. The novel explores how pain is passed down, how secrets calcify into family trauma, and how cultural and national history shape personal suffering. What emerges is a portrait of women trying, in imperfect ways, to protect one another while carrying wounds they don’t know how to reconcile.

Minbāk is tender, bleak, and ultimately compassionate, a moving story of forgiveness, survival, and the fragile possibility of breaking generational cycles.

[Amanda Fiorani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning! It might just be one of my new all-time favourite books.

What, or who, is home to you?

Minbak is centred around three women, three generations of a family — Youngja, Hana, and Ada. The story is told through their perspectives and those of other women across different timelines, all anchored in minbaks, a sort of boarding house. It spans different decades and countries, detailing this family's history and how these women came to be who they are today, their regrets, guilt, and love.

I know this book is going to stay with me for a long time. It is unflinchingly raw, and these women feel so real that I just want to give them a hug. It's sad how sometimes we are shouldering such heavy things by ourselves while in a room full of people, even family. It takes a tremendous amount of trust and forgiveness to accept people as they are, and these women have a great deal to work through. This book reminded me to take a closer look at my own mother and grandmother as women who have also been doing their best to deal with what life throws at them.

If you are a fan of family sagas and Pachinko like I am, then you're going to love Minbak. Ela Lee continues to stun.

Huge thanks to Harvill for the eARC and proof!

[PS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Minbak is a thought-provoking and intimate snapshot of three generations of women that begins as an exploration of the complexity of family dynamics before evolving into a moving story about one of South Korea’s longest-running and controversial programs.

The non-linear structure weaves together different perspectives and timelines in a beautiful way that shows the far-reaching consequences of the characters’ decisions across decades and continents.

Lee’s debut novel, Jaded , was a searing criticism of power dynamics and how they impact the trajectory of one’s life. Minbak is a quiet but equally powerful complement, with its examination of how cultural expectations weigh heavily on our actions. Each of the characters have moments where they adhere to stifling conventions, but also moments of rebellion, and Lee’s atmospheric prose captures those conflicts that are central to the human experience.

Lee’s not afraid to leave some big questions unanswered - symbolic of the experience of many South Korean families affected by the topic at the heart of the novel. But the contemplations around forgiveness offers a hope for the three women at the core of the story.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in return for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, and it was very accomplished. It’s an intergenerational historical fiction, switching perspectives between grandmother/mother/teenage daughter (plus other characters) and how the events and choices made in Korea in the 80s continue to have ramifications down the generations. It’s similar to other novels I have read like Pachinko and How We Disappeared, so will appeal to readers who enjoyed those. But it is in no way a rerun of those novels and is very fresh and unique. It has a more modern historical focus too - where most novels like this seem to begin in the WW2/Japanese occupation period, this focuses primarily on international adoption of Korean babies in the 80s.

Each chapter shifts perspectives to a different character, and jumps between time periods. It could easily have become confusing but is done very artfully so the reader doesn’t get lost.

I was glad it had an ending that wasn’t ambiguous but also didn’t give an easy or unrealistic resolution.

I’d recommend this!