Casey Han's years at Princeton have given her 'a refined diction, an enviable golf handicap, wealthy friends, a popular white boyfriend, and a magna cum laude degree in economics. But no job, and a number of bad habits...' The elder daughter of working-class Korean immigrants who run a dry cleaning shop in Manhattan, Casey inhabits a New York, a world away from that of her parents. Ambitious, spirited and obstinate, she's developed a taste for a lifestyle - and a passion for beautiful hats and expensive tailoring - she hasn't the means to sustain. And between the culture to which her family so fiercely cling and the life she aspires to, Casey must confront her own identity, the meaning of wealth, and what she really wants from her future. As Casey navigates an uneven course of small triumphs and spectacular failures, a clash of values, ideals and ambitions plays out against the colourful backdrop of New York society, it's many layers, shades and divides.

Author Biography

Min Jin Lee immigrated aged seven to the United States with her family. She studied at Yale and at Georgetown Law School, and worked as a lawyer for several years before giving it up to write full-time. She has been published in the Asian Pacific American Journal, Bananafish, the Missouri Review and Narrative Magazine. Her work has also been featured on NPR's Selected Shorts and anthologized in To Be Real (Doubleday, 1995), and Breeder (Seal Press, 2001). She lives in New York with her husband and son.