Girl Uprooted: A Memoir

Growing up, Lena Lee never knew where she belonged. As the daughter of a diplomat, she moved countries every three years, her world swinging between East and West. While her father tried to instill traditional Confucian values in his children, Lena was quick to disown her Korean roots at school, even pretending she couldn't speak her mother tongue. By the time she returned "home" to South Korea at the age of 22, Lena's inner and outer lives were worlds apart. On paper, she was an Oxford graduate about to start a promising career in London; behind the scenes, her twenties were plagued by drinking and depression as a lifetime of shapeshifting took its toll. Ultimately, it would take an explosive family rupture to force Lena to confront her mental health issues and ask herself: Who was she? And where, if anywhere, did she belong? Told with unreserved candor and vulnerability, Girl Uprooted is a fascinating exploration of identity and what it means to belong when you straddle multiple cultures, languages, friendships and homes.