The Starlet and the Spy
(UK edition: Marilyn and Me) 
​​​by Ji-min Lee

One of the best historical reads to take on holiday—Stylist
​
A dazzling work of historical fiction, based on true events, about two women who seem the most unlikely to ever meet: Alice, a Korean war survivor and translator for the American forces in Seoul and Marilyn Monroe, who is visiting Korea on a four-day USO tour.

As Marilyn’s visit unfolds, Alice is forced into a reckoning with her own painful past. Moving and mesmerizing, The Starlet and the Spy is a beautiful portrayal of unexpected kinship between two very different women, and of the surprising connections that can change, or even save, a life.

Buy now at your local bookseller or Amazon.

---

Reviews

"With great care and mastery of poetic language, translator Kim brings Lee's novel to English-language readers."
​​—Booklist

"Lauded Korean translator Kim again enables anglophone audiences resonating access."
​​—Booklist Reader

“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

"Lee's touching examination of the long shadow of war cast over one woman will leave readers intensely moved."
--Publishers Weekly

“The Starlet and the Spy explores war and survival, grief and guilt, and our complicated relationship with beauty. This poetically translated, richly imagined novel provides a moving, thought-provoking glimpse into a fascinating moment in history.”
​—Meg Waite Clayton, author of The Race for Paris

"A raw, emotionally heightened novel about Korea's largely unstoried legacy of grief."
​--Daily Mail

"Spare and powerful."
​--The Mail on Sunday

"A bone-chilling read."
​--Irish Independent

"A necessary and timely act of reclamation and remembrance for the so-called Forgotten War."
--The Irish Times