Between Kimchi and Chai: A Korean Family's New Life in Bangalore (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798258181817)

Following a devastating divorce that left her questioning her own capacity to love, operations manager Ji-yeon relocates her two children from the orderly streets of Seoul to the vibrant, deafening chaos of Bangalore, India. Armed with laminated emergency contacts and a rigid set of rules, she is determined to treat this transition as just another logistics project. But Bangalore has other plans.

Her nine-year-old son, Min-jun, immediately surrenders to the city, trading his mother's meticulous kimbap for homemade chapattis and building an information network with the local street crows. Her teenage daughter, Seo-yeon, takes the opposite approach, building emotional walls so high that Ji-yeon can no longer reach her. And then there is Mrs. Sharma-the relentless neighbor in Flat 4B who refuses to respect Ji-yeon's polite distance, forcing her way through the front door with hot tea, unsolicited advice, and the terrifying prospect of a genuine chosen family.

As the monsoon rains wash away her carefully constructed defenses, Ji-yeon must face the hardest operational failure of her life. To save her fractured family, she will have to throw away the rulebook, risk the pain of vulnerability, and learn that sometimes, protecting your children means letting the messy, beautiful world in.

A sweeping, heart-wrenching story of cultural collision, healing trauma, and the families we choose. Perfect for fans of Min Jin Lee's Pachinko, Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, and Patrick Ryan's Buckeye.