"Concerning My Daughter" by Kim Hye-jin

“That child who sprang from my own flesh and blood is perhaps the creature I'm most distant from.”

Themes: Mother-Daughter relationship; Age/Ageing; Family; Class; Politics; Food; Prejudice; Womanhood; Traditional values; Culture; Isolation; Feminism; Self-agency

Discussion Questions:

1. Why do you think the narrator only refers to Green as "my daughter" and never by her name?

2. What do you think about the narrator's relationship to other women in this book, like the Professor's Wife and Jen?

3. Why do you think Hye-jin spends so much time detailing the conditions of Jen and the other elderly patients?

4. How would you describe the scene when the narrator enters the protest?

5. How does Lane communicate through food?

6. What about the narrator's life contributes to her prejudice against her daughter?

7. Why do you think Green and Lane move in with Green's mother? Purely out of financial need?

8. How does Hye-jin explore feminism throughout this book?

9. How does the narrator's relationship to Jen compare to her relationship with her daughter?

10. What does Jen teach the narrator?

11. Ageing is a principal theme throughout the book. Discuss its significance. Were there any moments concerning age that stood out to you in particular?