Review of The Last Story of Mina Lee

This is an excellent debut novel by this author. The story is told through alternating chapters between Mina and her daughter Margot. Mina is an immigrant from Korea living in Koreatown in L.A. Margot, not understanding how difficult her mother’s life has been, has always been ashamed and frustrated with her. As time goes on their relationship becomes more distant and now Mina is not answering the phone when Margot calls. Margot fearing something is wrong goes to check on her and finds out she has died. We go back and forth between the characters and find out how challenging Mina’s life has really been and hopefully for Margot to have a better understanding of her mother. I was very interested in learning about Mina’s immigrant experience and how hard her struggle really was. Sadly it is so hard to assimilate in the new culture and especially with the language barrier. I really appreciated that this was an own voices book.