This memoir by musician and songwriter Michelle Zauner honors the memory of her late mother and explores the difficulty and beauty of growing up as a biracial Korean American.

When musician Michelle Zauner's mother died in 2014, she dealt with her grief by writing songs that detailed the experience in minute detail.

Psychopomp, her debut album as indie-rock artist and leader of the band Japanese Breakfast, launched a career in music she had almost given up on.

Zauner is a renowned musician, director, and author.

Zauner's essay, Real Life: Love, Loss, and Kimchi, won the Glamour magazine essay contest in 2016. In it, Zauner writes about the experience of losing her mother to cancer, and how her attempts to recreate Korean food helped her to come to terms with grief.

Published in 2021, Crying in H Mart takes its name from another essay published by Zauner in the New York Times.

The memoir details Zauner's experience growing up in a Korean-American household, and how food, music, and beauty formed critical parts of her life and her complicated relationship with her mother.