★ This is a healing masterpiece that captures the essence of "everyday life" to the extreme. As the book states—"Fourteen foods, fourteen mothers, one generation's life." The author takes 14 of the most ordinary Korean mother's home-cooked dishes—such as soybean paste stew, rice cakes, and kimchi—and brews them into a spiritual warm current to soothe modern people's anxiety. Every dish is a vessel of love and companionship; opening the book is like drinking a bowl of steaming hot soup on a cold winter night.

★ "If I have a next life, I will cross several cycles of reincarnation to be your daughter again." This book precisely hits the "love-hate yet inseparable" bond between East Asian mothers and daughters. With a gentle first-person perspective, the author writes about the grievances, understanding, and relief hidden in the daily grind of life with intricate detail. It allows every urban woman who feels lost or hurt in her mother-daughter relationship to find her own tear-jerking moments and redemption between the lines.

This is the debut work of author Lee Soonha. It is a story about people who became family not by deliberate choice, but accidentally tied by blood, or "family members" (sikgu) who, despite having no blood relation, had to somehow share meals at the same table during a certain period of their lives. With a writing prowess honed over many years, author Lee Soonha delicately restores the history of these "family members struggling through the daily grind" and the life of the mother who ultimately kept them fed.

Praised for its "tear-jerking literary flavor," Lee Soonha's writing proves the power of essays to shed light on neglected figures and humanity. It has captured the hearts of the older generation who have experienced poverty, and deeply moved the younger generation who, while tormented by interpersonal relationships and making a living, yearn for the warmth and sincerity of human affection.

Lee Soonha

Born in Daegu in 1958. She earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Kookmin University at the age of 60 and currently serves as an adjunct professor at Konkuk University.

In her later years, she began a healing act of writing by calling out for "Mother." After being serialized online, it went viral on social media—a powerful debut that shines regardless of age.

1996 New Spring Popular Literature Award

Works: The Power to Listen, Think, Speak (2013), Happy Nomad (2020)