Michelle Zauner

The author, Michelle Zauner, is a singer/songwriter who performs under the stage name Japanese Breakfast. In the memoir, she recalls growing up in Eugene, Oregon as the daughter of a white father and Korean mother, often feeling like she did not fit in with her white peers. She quarreled with her mother, Chongmi, frequently, and the tension between them was exacerbated by Zauner's interest in music, which Chongmi did not think an appropriate career choice. Zauner moved away from home to attend college at Bryn Mawr in Philadelphia, and her relationship with her mother gradually improved.

When Zauner is 25, her mother is diagnosed with stage IV squamous-cell carcinoma and Zauner returns to Eugene to help care for her. She recounts the difficult months that follow as Chongmi's condition worsens and chemotherapy proves ineffective in treating it. With her mother near death, Zauner proposes to her...