Free Food for Millionaires

The debut novel of the bestselling author of Pachinko, now with a reading group guide.

Casey Han has a Princeton degree, expensive taste, and no clear plan. The daughter of Korean immigrants, she’s caught between two worlds: the disciplined, tradition-bound expectations of her Queens upbringing and the dazzling promise of Manhattan’s elite—a world of power, privilege, and invisible rules she longs to master.

Struggling with mounting debt and a faltering relationship, Casey tries to navigate ambition, identity, and belonging in a city where status is everything and appearances matter more than truth. When a chance meeting offers her a foothold into high society, she sees an opportunity to rewrite her future—but success comes with compromises, and self-reinvention doesn’t come cheap.

Spanning love, family, betrayal, and ambition, Free Food for Millionaires is a sweeping, character-rich debut that explores the tension between generations, cultures, and class. With piercing insight and compassion, Min Jin Lee delivers a powerful portrait of a young woman trying to find her place—without losing herself.