American movie star Marilyn Monroe will be visiting Korea on a four-day USO tour, and Alice has been chosen as her translator. Though intrigued, Alice has few expectations of the job--what could she and a beautiful actress at the peak of her fame possibly have to talk about? Yet the Marilyn she meets, while just as dazzling and sensual as Alice expected, is also surprisingly approachable. As Marilyn's visit unfolds, Alice is forced into a reckoning with her own painful past. - (Baker & Taylor)

A Korean war survivor is assigned as translator for Marilyn Monroe during a 1954 USO tour to a Korea still struggling to return to normalcy and develops a deep kinship with the star. 50,000 first printing. Original. - (Baker & Taylor)

“This story of the unlikely meeting of two vulnerable women is a beautifully woven page turner. The battle-weary woman and the pin-up girl who meet, connect, separate: each changed by the brief union.” --Heather Morris, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz

A dazzling work of historical fiction, based on true events, about two women who seem the most unlikely to ever meet: Alice, a Korean war survivor and translator for the American forces in Seoul and Marilyn Monroe, who is visiting Korea on a four-day USO tour.

February 1954. Although the Korean War armistice was signed a year ago, most citizens of Seoul still battle to return to some semblance of normalcy. Conditions are dismal. Children beg for food, and orphanages are teeming. Alice J. Kim, a Korean translator and typist for the American forces still sanctioned in the city, yearns for the life she used to live before her country was torn apart.

Then Alice’s boss makes an announcement—the American movie star Marilyn Monroe will be visiting Korea on a four-day USO tour, and Alice has been chosen as her translator. Though intrigued, Alice has few expectations of the job—what could she and a beautiful actress at the peak of her fame possibly have to talk about? Yet the Marilyn she meets, while just as dazzling and sensual as Alice expected, is also surprisingly approachable.

As Marilyn’s visit unfolds, Alice is forced into a reckoning with her own painful past. Moving and mesmerizing, The Starlet and the Spy is a beautiful portrayal of unexpected kinship between two very different women, and of the surprising connections that can change, or even save, a life.

'this story of the unlikely meeting of two vulnerable women is a beautifully woven page turner. The battle-weary woman and the pin-up girl who meet, connect, separate: each changed by the brief union.' --Heather Morris, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz

A dazzling work of historical fiction, based on true events, about two women who seem the most unlikely to ever meet: Alice, a Korean war survivor and translator for the American forces in Seoul and Marilyn Monroe, who is visiting Korea on a four-day USO tour.

February 1954. Although the Korean War armistice was signed a year ago, most citizens of Seoul still battle to return to some semblance of normalcy. Conditions are dismal. Children beg for food, and orphanages are teeming. Alice J. Kim, a Korean translator and typist for the American forces still sanctioned in the city, yearns for the life she used to live before her country was torn apart.

Then Alice's boss makes an announcement'the American movie star Marilyn Monroe will be visiting Korea on a four-day USO tour, and Alice has been chosen as her translator. Though intrigued, Alice has few expectations of the job'what could she and a beautiful actress at the peak of her fame possibly have to talk about? Yet the Marilyn she meets, while just as dazzling and sensual as Alice expected, is also surprisingly approachable.

As Marilyn's visit unfolds, Alice is forced into a reckoning with her own painful past. Moving and mesmerizing, The Starlet and the Spy is a beautiful portrayal of unexpected kinship between two very different women, and of the surprising connections that can change, or even save, a life.

THEY WERE THE TWO MOST UNLIKELY WOMEN TO EVER MEET . . .

February 1954. Although the Korean War armistice was signed a year ago, most citizens of Seoul still struggle to return to some semblance of normalcy. Conditions are dismal. Children beg for food, and orphanages are teeming. Alice J. Kim, a Korean translator and typist for the American forces still sanctioned in the city, yearns for the life she used to live before her country was torn apart.

Then Alice’s boss makes an announcement—the American movie star Marilyn Monroe will be visiting Korea on a four-day USO tour, and Alice has been chosen as her translator. Though intrigued, Alice has few expectations of the job—what could she and a beautiful actress at the peak of her fame possibly have to talk about? Yet the Marilyn she meets, while just as dazzling and sensual as Alice expected, is also surprisingly approachable.

As Marilyn’s visit unfolds, Alice is forced into a reckoning with her own painful past. Moving and mesmerizing, The Starlet and the Spy is a beautiful portrayal of unexpected kinship between two very different women, and of the surprising connections that can change, or even save, a life.

THEY WERE THE TWO MOST UNLIKELY WOMEN TO EVER MEET . . .

February 1954. Although the Korean War armistice was signed a year ago, most citizens of Seoul still struggle to return to some semblance of normalcy. Conditions are dismal. Children beg for food, and orphanages are teeming. Alice J. Kim, a Korean translator and typist for the American forces still sanctioned in the city, yearns for the life she used to live before her country was torn apart.

Then Alice's boss makes an announcement'the American movie star Marilyn Monroe will be visiting Korea on a four-day USO tour, and Alice has been chosen as her translator. Though intrigued, Alice has few expectations of the job'what could she and a beautiful actress at the peak of her fame possibly have to talk about? Yet the Marilyn she meets, while just as dazzling and sensual as Alice expected, is also surprisingly approachable.

As Marilyn's visit unfolds, Alice is forced into a reckoning with her own painful past. Moving and mesmerizing, The Starlet and the Spy is a beautiful portrayal of unexpected kinship between two very different women, and of the surprising connections that can change, or even save, a life.

Booklist Reviews

In Korean novelist and screenwriter Lee's slim novel of extraordinary depth and sensibility, it's 1954 when Marilyn Monroe visits Korea on a USO tour, a year after the Korean War armistice. Alice is assigned to be her personal assistant and translator. In close proximity with the highly congenial Marilyn, Alice is catapulted into a reexamination of her own life, until figures from her past suddenly reappear. Marilyn's visit becomes a frame for Alice's larger story, allowing her the space to reflect and creating opportunities for her shadowy past to reenter her life. With great care and mastery of poetic language, translator Kim brings Lee's novel to English-language readers, a large swath of whom it will speak to. Lovers of historical fiction will appreciate Lee's attention to dates and details, while readers seeking intrigue will find plot aplenty, and it's all tangled in a tragic romance built up to epic proportions. Philosophically minded readers, too, will appreciate how Alice's moments of introspection provide keen insight into life's deepest questions. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.

Library Journal Reviews

Translated by Kim, whose work has won multiple awards, Korean screenwriter and novelist Lee's first publication in English uses Marilyn Monroe's 1954 USO tour in Korea as a springboard for a lush tale of historical fiction. While Marilyn appears throughout, the story focuses on the fictional character of newly named Alice J. Kim (she was originally Kim Ae-Sun), who acts as Marilyn's interpreter during the tour. Alice's past unfolds before readers, who learn of her struggles as an independent woman in love with a married man—ironically, a well-regarded author and translator. Lee's writing traverses through some episodes of the grittiness of wartime and survival. Using the interaction between two women from vastly different walks of life, she forms connections between them and weaves a story that contains elements of despair, whimsy, and surprise. VERDICT Unique in its setting, mid-1950s Korea newly split by communism after two devastating wars, this brief novel will be appreciated by readers who enjoy historical context and/or strong female protagonists. [See Prepub Alert, 3/4/19.]—Shirley Quan, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA