As a Korean adoptee to white parents in a majority-white Oregon town, Nicole Chung was excited to leave her hometown for college and move across the country. She found her community and home on the East Coast as her family grew after graduation. However, when both her parents passed away within a year of each other–her father from diabetes & kidney disease and her mother from cancer during the pandemic–Chung was hit with heartbreaking grief and rage.

A LIVING REMEDY is a heartwrenching and poignant memoir that explores identity, family, and inequality. As an adoptee who grew up in a white family, Chung grapples with her difference from her parents yet also cherishes the closeness they share. She reflects on her parents' courageous decision to adopt a sick Korean American baby. This experience gives Chung the courage to pursue whatever she wants in life and is a testament to her parents' legacy.

Chung also delves into issues of poverty and healthcare and how these issues are intertwined to contribute to the struggles of middle-class families that rely on stable jobs to afford medical care. As someone who lived in Taiwan, where there is universal healthcare, and finds America's medical system baffling, I resonated deeply with Chung's experience and pain when her father couldn't access adequate care due to financial instability.

Perhaps most heartbreakingly, Chung memorializes her parents and grapples with the question of how to care for them when she's across the country and how to remember them after they're gone. I sobbed so much reading about this and thinking about my parents, who are an ocean away. While I'm grateful for their support of me pursuing my career in the US, I shudder to think if there's ever an emergency and I couldn't be there with my parents. Will I ever forgive myself?

A LIVING REMEDY is a beautifully written memoir that explores complex themes with grace and honesty. Chung's story is one that resonated deeply with me, and I'll be thinking about it long after finishing.

Thank you to Ecco Books and Net Galley for the eARC. A LIVING REMEDY is out today, and it's a beautiful story you won't want to miss!