“Hers was tougher than tough love. It was brutal, industrial-strength. A sinewy love that never gave way to an inch of weakness. It was a love that saw what was best for you ten steps ahead, and didn’t care if it hurt like hell in the meantime. When I got hurt, she felt it so deeply, it was as though it were her own affliction. She was guilty only of caring too much. I realize this now, only in retrospect. No one in this would would ever love me as much as my mother, and she would never let me forget it.”

This memoir is about the author’s relationship with her mother Chongmi in the wake of her mom’s battle with cancer and her eventual death.

This book starts with Michelle walking through the H Mart and remembering the foods her Korean mother cooked for her. The story goes back and forth from childhood to adult with food being extremely important to the mother daughter relationship. They love each other but have had times where they did not agree. As she gets older, the author understands her mother better and appreciates the things she could not while she was younger.