A Tender Age

From the Pulitzer Prize shortlisted novelist, a story of guilt, innocence, and a boy on the cusp of adolescence

'Who is a greater novelist than Chang-rae Lee?' 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

‘Chang-rae Lee can do no wrong in my mind – I devoured Lee’s last novel, My Year Abroad, and I can’t wait for this one.’ LitHub

From the Pulitzer Prize shortlisted novelist, a story of guilt, innocence, and a boy on the cusp of adolescence

‘Lee’s latest novel is a tale of almosts: a family of working-class immigrants almost living the American dream; an 11-year-old boy, almost transitioning into adulthood and straddling the worlds of his doting Korean parents and a semi-feral gaggle of neighborhood kids.’ New York Times Most Anticipated Books of 2026

A spellbinding exploration of 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 coming-of-age novel. 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.

UK Delivery:

• Free delivery on all orders of £10 or more.
• £1.49 delivery fee on orders below £10.
• UK orders are shipped via Royal Mail 2nd Class.

International Delivery:

• Flat rate delivery charges vary by country.

Dispatch and Delivery Times:

• All orders are shipped from our warehouse in Northampton, UK within 48 hours of receipt during working hours.
• UK mainland orders typically arrive within 3-5 working days via Royal Mail 2nd Class.
• International estimated delivery times:
• Europe & Channel Islands: 7 to 10 working days
• USA: 7 to 15 working days
• Rest of the World: 9 to 21 working days

View our full delivery infomation here.