Ji-min Lee
Books
Marilyn and Me / The Starlet And The Spy
By Ji-min Lee, Translated by Chi Young Kim Sold to Helen Garnons-Williams/Fourth Estate/UK & Commonwealth exclude. Canada Complete translation is due in Nov.’18 and publication is set for May’19. HarperCollins/US, HarperCollins/Italy, HarperCollins/Germany THE STARLET AND THE SPY- US- September ‘19 / Marilyn and Me- July ’19 UK
Marilyn and Me takes place over the course of four days in February and interspersed flashback chapters that span the Korean War until the armistice of 1953. Alice, a translator for the American forces in Seoul, is asked to interpret for Marilyn Monroe who is visiting Korea for a four-day USO tour. A former lover working in military intelligence also asks her to be the bait in a sting operation involving the entrapment of a Communist spy only she can recognize. Marilyn’s kindness and energy draws Alice out of her shell-shocked state as Alice is forced to relive the terrible events of the war where she had to survive the Communist takeover of Seoul. The sting operation succeeds. In the end, Marilyn inadvertently stops Alice from killing herself and Alice decides to give life another go.
“This story of the unlikely meeting of two vulnerable women is a beautifully woven page turner. The battle-weary woman and the pin-up girl who meet, connect, separate: each changed by the brief union.”—Heather Morris, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Reviews
Fiction Book Review: The Starlet and The Spy -PW.com
The Irish Times Reviews: Marilyn and Me
