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AudioBook information:
Author: Chang-rae Lee
Narrated by: Keong Sim
Release date: August 11, 2026
Audiobook Duration: 9 h 34 min
Summary: NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE BOSTON GLOBE, GOODREADS, LITERARY HUB, AND THE MILLIONS
“Who is a greater novelist than Chang-rae Lee?”—The 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
From the Pulitzer Prize finalist, a story of guilt, innocence, and a boy on the cusp of adolescence
A spellbinding exploration of American 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 American bildungsroman. The natural descendent of characters like Huckleberry Finn and Holden Caufield, 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.
Reviews:
Praise for A Tender Age
“[A] beautiful coming-of-age tale.” —The Boston Globe
“[Lee is] such a beautiful writer…Very evocative…rich and immersive.” —The New York Times Podcast, “The Book Review”
“Mr. Lee has wonderfully evoked the unmatched urgency of this period of childhood, when everything, from a footrace to a girl’s smile, feels like a matter of life and death.” —The Wall Street Journal
“Jeon-Gi, buffeted by forces and friendships outside his control, provokes a keen sense of sympathy that’s hard to forget.” —New York Magazine
“Nuanced and dramatically rich, presenting a frighteningly accurate depiction of adolescence that offers no easy answers…another powerful work about identity formation and the American experience from one of America’s best authors.” —BookPage (STARRED REVIEW)
“Lee tracks his young protagonist’s brutal education in the perversity of life…with breathtaking nuance and literary artistry…Each detail in each stunning and dramatic scene is vital and clarion… highly charged and resonant.” —Booklist (STARRED REVIEW)
“Lee’s striking latest…hits hard.” —Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW)
“A melancholy, emotionally rich story of preadolescent struggles.” —Kirkus (STARRED REVIEW)
Praise for Chang-rae Lee
“I have no choice but to ask: Who is a greater novelist than Chang-rae Lee?” —The Los Angeles Times
“Nothing is rushed; nothing is overlooked… Lee understands that in art and in stories what is perhaps most valuable is not what can be explained but what can be felt.” –The Boston Globe
“The prose Chang-rae Lee writes is elliptical, riddling, poetic…beautifully made.” —The New Yorker
“[Chang-rae Lee] explores the fundamental human desires to be seen and to love.” —The Washington Post
“Lee’s writing style, as usual, is alive with wit and satiric social commentary… boisterous and fun.” —NPR, Fresh Air
About the Author:
Chang-rae Lee is the author of six other novels, including Native Speaker, winner of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for first fiction, and The Surrendered, winner of the Dayton Peace Prize and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A 2021 winner of the Award of Merit for the Novel from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Chang-rae Lee teaches writing at Stanford University.