A Tender Age

‘Who is a greater novelist than Chang-rae Lee?’ Los Angeles Times

‘He has redefined not only what it means to be American, but the fabric of the Great American Novel itself.’ Jhumpa Lahiri

‘A frighteningly accurate depic­tion of adolescence that offers no easy answers… Another powerful work from one of America’s best authors.’ Boston Globe starred review

From the Pulitzer Prize shortlisted novelist, a story of guilt, innocence, and a boy on the cusp of adolescence

‘Lee’s latest novel is a tale of almosts: a family of working-class immigrants almost living the American dream; an 11-year-old boy, almost transitioning into adulthood and straddling the worlds of his doting Korean parents and a semi-feral gaggle of neighborhood kids.’ New York Times Most Anticipated Books of 2026

A spellbinding exploration of masculinity and family dynamics as seen through the confused eyes of a prepubescent child of immigrants, A Tender Age joins the rich tradition of the coming-of-age novel. The natural descendent of characters like Huckleberry Finn and Holden Caulfield, Korean-American Jeon-Gi is torn between competing ideas of himself. At home, his working-class parents dote on him. Outside, he is part of a roving pack of kids with dominion over a derelict baseball field, weedy parking lot, and rusty jungle gym. Getting into and out of trouble is all-consuming. But the summer he turns eleven, he becomes embroiled in a staggering series of events reverberating far beyond himself and his family.

Devastating in its emotional precision, A Tender Age captures a family and community in striking distance of the American dream, and a young person on the precipice of adult knowledge, looking at his own culpability and looking away – then thinking about it for the rest of his life.

‘Chang-rae Lee can do no wrong in my mind – I devoured Lee’s last novel, My Year Abroad, and I can’t wait for this one.’ LitHub