10/6/2026
The Green Room

‘I thought, if I’m going to die, I’m going to write a book first’: Pachinko author Min Jin Lee

Filed by Vivien Star
‘I thought, if I’m going to die, I’m going to write a book first’: Pachinko author Min Jin Lee
Her last novel sold 5m copies and was adapted into a hit series. Nearly 10 years on, the Korean-American author has written another epic. She discusses ambition and the diagnosis that inspired her to leave work and writeBack in 1995, when she was in her mid-20s, Min Jin Lee quit her job as a corporate lawyer. As a teenager she had been diagnosed as a hepatitis B carrier and doctors told her she was highly likely to develop liver cancer in her 20s or 30s. “I thought, if I’m going to die, I’m goin
V
Vivien Star
Magazine AI commentary
No commentary yet — an editor can generate it from the Dispatch Desk.
📌 Read the real article ↗via Guardian Culture · Guardian Culture

💬 Discussion

Sign in to join the discussion.
Be the first to comment on this story.
Loading…
‘I thought, if I’m going to die, I’m going to write a book first’: Pachinko author Min Jin Lee — The Green Room