Join the team at Waterstones Islington with Ela Lee, in conversation with Nicola Dinan, to discuss Minbak, a sweeping story of three generations of women who cross continents and decades to find truth, forgiveness and compassion, and an engrossing, heartfelt story of love, loss and the challenges of being true to yourself.
Incheon, 1985. A nameless baby is born in a minbak in South Korea and vanishes nine days later. London, 2008. When tragedy strikes, Hana faces ruin. She is forced to move her family – her teenage daughter Ada and ailing mother Youngja – into a single room with her, converting the rest of their home into a minbak, in a painful echo of her past life. In the confined space of their shared room, there is nowhere to hide. As the past collides with the present, all three women are forced to face not only their family’s dark history, but that of an entire country.
Ela Lee is a London-based author. Her debut Jaded was published as a lead title by Vintage in the UK, and Simon & Schuster in the US. In 2024, Jaded was an Amazon Best Fiction Book of the Year and Lee was named a Spotify Breakout Author. She has also been selected for Forbes 30 under 30, Class of 2025. Minbak is her second novel.
Nicola Dinan grew up in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur and now lives in London. Bellies, her debut, was shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize, Diverse Book Awards and Mo Siewcharran Prize, was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, and was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize. Disappoint Me, her second novel, won the New Adult Book Prize.