Crying in H Mart is a memoir by author and singer-songwriter Michelle Zauner. It recounts her relationship with her mother, particularly as it relates to food and Korean culture.
The memoir examines Zauner's close relationship with her mother, charting its ups and downs from her childhood on. The book begins with Zauner describing her experience of becoming emotionally overwhelmed at an H Mart, a grocery store that specializes in Korean food, in the aftermath of her mother's death. She says that food was always an essential part of their connection, grounding them in a cultural background. She goes backward from there and discusses her childhood visits with her Korean family as well as a rocky period during her high school years. Then, she spends the second half of the book depicting her mother's cancer diagnosis and her chemotherapy treatments. Zauner moves back home and cares for her mother, as her relationship with her father begins to unravel. After her mother dies, she deals with the incredible pain and grief of the unexpected loss. The book ends with Zauner returning to Korea to play a show with her band and feeling a sense of reconnection with her mother's memory as she sings a song her mother loved with her relatives.
When it was released, Zauner's book received positive reviews from both critics and mainstream audiences. Kirkus Reviews described the book as "a tender, well-rendered, heart-wrenching account of the way food ties us to those who have passed."
