Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner Announces New Memoir ‘Thank You for Your Suffering’

Michelle Zauner is turning the page on her next chapter, quite literally.

Related Queer Jams of the Week: New Music From Japanese Breakfast, Lil Nas X, Ashnikko & More ‘Crying in H Mart’ Adaptation ‘On Pause’ Says Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner Reacts to BTS’ Jung Kook Co-Signing Her ‘Crying in H Mart’ Book The Japanese Breakfast frontwoman announced on Thursday (Sept.

17) that she will release her second memoir, Thank You for Your Suffering , on April 27, 2027, via Knopf.

The book follows Zauner during a year she spent living in Seoul, South Korea, where she set out to learn Korean, reconnect with her late mother’s family and better understand a part of her heritage she had long felt disconnected from.

The title comes from a Korean expression Zauner encountered while getting her hair done.

“Gosaeng haesseoyo” is a polite way of recognizing someone’s effort, though its literal translation is closer to “You suffered.” The phrase stuck with Zauner and eventually became the title of the memoir.

The book picks up on themes that readers first encountered in Zauner’s bestselling 2021 memoir, Crying in H Mart .

While that book talked mostly about growing up as a Korean American woman processing the death of her mother, Thank You for Your Suffering turns toward what happened when Zauner decided to pursue a deeper connection to her mother’s culture through language.

That pursuit was anything but easy.

Zauner, who was born in Korea and raised in Eugene, Oregon, spent much of her childhood visiting the country during summers.

But in 2024, she moved to Seoul for an entire year with her husband and Japanese Breakfast bandmate Peter Bradley, making it the longest stretch she had ever spent there.

She enrolled in language school, kept a daily journal in both Korean and English and documented the highs and lows of starting over somewhere unfamiliar.

There was also a compelling reason to master the language.

Before leaving Seoul, Zauner discovered a handwritten diary belonging to her mother among her parents’ belongings.