Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast) reveals new book title and cover
Photo: Pak Bae

Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast) reveals new book title and cover

Michelle Zauner – the singer, songwriter, and creative force behind Japanese Breakfast – has begun revealing details about her upcoming second book.

We now have a title – Thank You for Your Suffering – and a cover, which you can see below:

The new memoir, which is out April 27, is said to follow Zauner's year spent living in South Korea, enmeshing herself in the local culture and language as she enrolled in an "impossibly challenging" language school. It also details her experiences reconnecting and deepening bonds with her late mother's family, and adjusting to the shift in geography alongside her husband Peter.

In an interview with Elle, Zauner says "So much of the book is about working really hard. I was just so hungry and scared of not doing a good job. I think part of that was this strange psychological feeling after my mom died, of wanting to be this perfect daughter that I wish I could have been when she was alive."

She goes on:

"It felt like I spent all this time learning about Korean food and writing about that, and it just wasn’t enough. It made me suddenly really want to go further in connecting to that part of my mom’s history and who she was as a person, and so I really regretted not learning the language, and I felt quite embarrassed about it. I was really curious: If I did spend a year there, how much could I learn?"

You may recall that Zauner's first memoir, Crying in H Mart, was a smash hit, landing on the NYT Best Sellers list (and spending over 100 weeks there) and garnering multiple glowing reviews. That book traversed the gulfs of grief as Zauner wrote about her mother's losing battle with cancer, weaving together a rich tapestry of present day woes, past memories of food and childhood, discovering oneself, and a hard-won hopefulness. The new memoir builds a connective thread to her debut, featuring many relatives from her mother's side of the family.

A few years ago, there was a plan to adapt H Mart into a feature film, with Zauner penning the screenplay. However, last year, the project fell through and is now "on pause."

You can preorder Thank You For Your Suffering now.

Jeremy J. Fisette

Connecticut

Writer, musician, editor, podcaster. Editor-in-chief & video editor of The Needle Drop.

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