Chang-rae Lee is the author of six other novels, including Native Speaker, winner of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for first fiction, and The Surrendered, winner of the Dayton Peace Prize and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A 2021 winner of the Award of Merit for the Novel from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Chang-rae Lee teaches writing at Stanford University.

Praise for A Tender Age

"[A] beautiful coming-of-age tale." --The Boston Globe

"Lee tracks his young protagonist's brutal education in the perversity of life...with breathtaking nuance and literary artistry...Each detail in each stunning and dramatic scene is vital and clarion... highly charged and resonant." --Booklist (STARRED REVIEW)

"A melancholy, emotionally rich story of preadolescent struggles." --Kirkus (STARRED REVIEW)

Praise for Chang-rae Lee

"I have no choice but to ask: Who is a greater novelist than Chang-rae Lee?" --The Los Angeles Times

"Nothing is rushed; nothing is overlooked... Lee understands that in art and in stories what is perhaps most valuable is not what can be explained but what can be felt." -The Boston Globe

"The prose Chang-rae Lee writes is elliptical, riddling, poetic...beautifully made." --The New Yorker

"[Chang-rae Lee] explores the fundamental human desires to be seen and to love." --The Washington Post

"Lee's writing style, as usual, is alive with wit and satiric social commentary... boisterous and fun." --NPR, Fresh Air

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Pub date: 2026-08-11

Length: 368 pages