For Adults
Minbak by Ela Lee is the next book to be featured this season on the Sara Cox Radio 2 Book Club—a story of three generations of Korean women, forced to live in one room when they open up their home in London as a guesthouse, and the secrets which bind and break them.
You can listen to the live interview with Ela on BBC Sounds from 10 March.
We have the chance for you to win a set of 10 copies of this novel for your book club. To apply, click on the survey link below. UK residents only, deadline for entries 25 March 2026.
Not yet a member of Book Club Hub? Sign up now.
Minbak
The night the baby without a surname was born, the army rolled into his mother’s town.
Incheon, South Korea, 1985. The country is revolting against a dictatorship, but in the local boarding-house, the chaos inside is only just beginning. When Hana is pulled from school to work in her family’s minbak, all she wants is to escape her small town. When she finally does, she leaves as an exile, a ruin, or
a martyr, depending on who you ask. Her mother Youngia is left behind with the torment of both of their decisions.
London, 2008. Ada knows little about her mother, Hana. When tragedy hits, Hana has no choice but to move her daughter and ailing mother into a single room and turn the rest of their home into a minbak. As the past collides with the present, Ada is determined to unearth her mother’s secrets. But her obsession will lead to a discovery that unravels not just her family’s dark past, but that of an entire country’s.
From Korea’s industrial estates to London’s suburbs, the three women cross continents and generations to find truth, forgiveness and compassion.
How to apply
To apply, fill in this survey by 25 March.
