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The July pick for the PBS NewsHour-New York Times book club is ‘Pachinko’

We’re excited to announce that “Pachinko” by Min Jin Lee is our July pick for the PBS NewsHour-New York Times book club, “Now Read This.”

“Pachinko” by Min Jin Lee. Credit: Grand Central Publishing

“Pachinko” is an epic family saga and historical novel about ethnic Koreans who migrate to Japan. It was a National Book Award finalist for fiction, and The New York Times named it one of the 10 best books of the year.

In a review of the book in The New York Times, novelist Krys Lee explains that the book’s title comes from the slot-machine-like game called Pachinko that is everywhere in Japan, and which “unifies the central concerns of identity, homeland and belonging.”

“Lee’s stunning novel,” Lee adds, “suggests that behind the facades of wildly different people lie countless private desires, hopes and miseries, if we have the patience and compassion to look and listen.”

In the coming days, we’ll post discussion questions for the book, an annotated page, and writing advice from Min Jin Lee. And at the end of the month, she will answer your questions on air.

Just joining? Become a member of the book club by joining our Facebook group, or by signing up for our newsletter. You can find all of our book club content here, or look back at our conversations about previous selections for the book club below:

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