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Crying in H Mart  By  cover art

Crying in H Mart

By: Michelle Zauner
Narrated by: Michelle Zauner
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Publisher's summary

From the indie rock star of Japanese Breakfast fame, and author of the viral 2018 New Yorker essay that shares the title of this book, an unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity.

In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up one of the few Asian-American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother's particular high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band - and meeting the man who would become her husband - her Korean-ness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother's diagnosis of terminal cancer, when Michelle was 25, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.

Vivacious and plainspoken, lyrical and honest, Zauner's voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and enjoy many times.

©2021 Michelle Zauner (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

One of the Best Books of the Year:

The New York Times, Time, NPR, Washington Post, Vogue, Entertainment Weekly, Good Morning America, Philadelphia Inquirer, Goodreads, BuzzFeed, and more

One of President Obama's Favorite Books of the Year

One of The Smithsonian's 10 Best Books About Food of the Year

“A warm and wholehearted work of literature, an honest and detailed account of grief over time, studded with moments of hope, humor, beauty, and clear-eyed observation. This story is a nuanced portrayal of a young person grappling with what it means to embody familial and cultural histories, to be fueled by creative pursuits, to examine complex relationships with place, and to endure the acute pain of losing a parent just on the other side of a tumultuous adolescence . . . Crying in H Mart is not to be missed.” The Seattle Times

Crying in H Mart powerfully maps a complicated mother-daughter relationship . . . Zauner writes about her mother’s death [with] clear-eyed frankness . . . The book is a rare acknowledgement of the ravages of cancer in a culture obsessed with seeing it as an enemy that can be battled with hope and strength. Zauner plumbs the connections between food and identity . . . her food descriptions transport us to the table alongside her. What Crying in H Mart reveals is that in losing her mother and cooking to bring her back to life, Zauner became herself.” —NPR

“A profound, timely exploration of terminal illness, culture and shared experience . . . Zauner has accomplished the unthinkable: a book that caters to all appetites. She brings dish after dish to life on the page in a rich broth of delectable details [and] offers remarkably prescient observations about otherness from the perspective of the Korean American experience. Crying in H Mart will thrill Japanese Breakfast fans and provide comfort to those in the throes of loss while brilliantly detailing the colorful panorama of Korean culture, traditions and food.” —San Francisco Chronicle

Featured Article: Comforting Audiobooks About Grief and Loss That Actually Help


When it comes to the death of a loved one, there is no easy path forward. Grieving can place significant mental strain on those who are mourning. And because everyone grieves a little differently, it can be hard to know where to turn for help, or what to say to someone who is in the throes of grief. Audiobooks on grief can offer insight to those looking for ways to support the mourning, or a bit of comfort for anyone struggling with loss themselves.

What listeners say about Crying in H Mart

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Broken Korean

I can’t really describe in words what this book means to me. As a first generation Korean American, Michelle Zauner’s memoir is more than her life and losing her mom at an early age. “Crying in H Mart” is a sentiment to all first generation Korean American raised in America. We are neither Koreans or Americans because our birth place is different from our ethnicity, but yet we have two cultures to deal with all the time. It’s really difficult to explain if you were raised with one language in the household. Many first generations are multilingual and we need to switch one language to the other as we communicate with our family’s native language. A lot of times, we are confused about how to identify ourselves because our Korean is nowhere near perfect from our parents.

I’m really glad that the author narrates her own book because her Korean dialogue is so comforting to listen to because that is how we speak at family gatherings when there is a variety of cultures in the house. My Korean relatives say that me and my brothers sound more American even though we are speaking in broken Korean. But yet our parents label us as being American first because we were born and raised in the States.

I first learned about Michelle Zauner when she did an interview on The Sporkful podcast. I was instantly hooked when she described what it’s like to be shopping at H Mart and see all of the foods that her mom made for her. Fortunately, my parents are still with us and as they get older, I cherish my mom’s cooking more each time I ask her to make me kimchi jjigae. Other than my grandma who has long passed away, my eomma is the only person who knows how spicy to make the strew. There is nothing like having my mom’s kimchi.

I cannot recommend this book enough, especially if you are Korean American. I really hope that this book gets translated into hangug because I will be buying a copy for my parents because it will explain a lot to them on what it’s like being Korean American.

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51 people found this helpful

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Crying with you.

I listened to your words in 2 days. I soaked them in. I cried with you reflecting my own loss. Thank you.

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Authors should never read their own works

Being a decent author, and I’m not claiming that Michelle is that, is one thing but having the chops to read a story in an engaging way, that’s something else. If you check on this site for the sample, you will notice that she never changes her inflection, seldom changes the volume or pitch etc. It is deadly boring to listen to.

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Beautifully written and read.

Heartbreakingly beautiful. As a person who lost a parent at a young age to cancer, I really connected with Michelle's experience.

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stunning

incredibly beautiful memoir from a gifted writer. masterful use of lyrical language. listening to the author herself read her work was an experience I found to be very special and heartwarming. highly recommend. I'm thankful for Zauner's art.

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so freaking good

An incredible story that I'm grateful Michelle shared. I'm not good at describing good writing but this was fantastic.

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Good Grief! (literally...)

As a person who lost their parent and best friend in one fell swoop— Crying In H-Mart is the most raw, real, and heartbreakingly accurate book on grieving the loss of a parent that i’ve found. I preordered this audiobook as soon as I was able and I was waiting for a long time for this book to be released. To say it surpassed my expectations is an understatement. I laughed, I cried, I felt comforted, and I felt extremely heard and understood for the first time since my father died. Bravo, Michelle Zauner!

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Hard to finish.

I hate to write a bad review, but I was very disappointed in this book, based on so many great reviews. I worked very hard to finish it, hoping it would somehow come together at the end, but It never did. What I could relate to was losing my own mom, but not with the way the author depicts her feelings. Zauner comes across as so self-absorbed, a spoiled, willful, whiny brat. The story seemed to be less about how much she truly loves her mom or her compassion for her mom’s suffering than it is about how much she worries about how she looks in the eyes of others. The author obviously feels she wasn’t a good enough daughter so she does what’s needed to make herself look good, to appear to at least be the perfect caretaker. Michelle was awful to her mother’s friend, Kay, the one person who seemed to really help her mom. She didn’t care that Kay made her mom feel better; she wanted her to leave because Kay made her look bad and feel inadequate. To me, the writing of the book seemed driven more by Zauner’s feelings of failure and her need for love, acceptance and approval from everyone, rather than actual feelings of loss. And all the talk of eating authentic Korean food seemed to be symbolic of her trying to somehow absorb the love and culture she had previously rejected. It also didn’t help that the author narrated the book in a flat monotone, almost like she was disinterested, reading a book written by someone else. Perhaps the book would be better read in print than listening to the audio version. I could not wait to be done with it and move on to something more interesting.

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My mom

I listen to the entire book in 1 day. Off the bat, she made me cry before I even finish the first chapter. The love between the author and her mother is so precious and in a way, it made me jealous. I had a similar upbringing as the author except that I don't have a loving mother like hers. My mother is currently fighting late-stage cancer very similar to the author so I can relate to what she went through. The author and I share the same cultural background, I fully understood all the cultural items and subjects she mentioned in her book. It's beautifully written and I truly enjoyed listening to her stories.

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wow

What a beautiful and moving book. Found myself crying while driving home from work while listening to it. Cannot recommend it enough.

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