SHAPIRO: And attend Harvard Law School and have high-paying jobs, right. And I think throughout my life, I felt this sort of rollercoaster between feeling so lucky to have the chance to come to America from. So to go from that environment to an environment where we were in this luxurious house with multiple indoor bathrooms, which was, like, magical to me - and color TVs, but at the same time losing my parents in the process for several years, it was really painful. And yet, at the same time, I had them with me always. And the three of us - my parents and me - we lived in one room. KIM: I came from this environment in Korea where we were very poor. 'Miracle Creek' creates a frame for some of those messy threads in Angie Kim's own life, including a childhood where her parents worked from 6 a.m. Bad things get hurled at you in clumps and batches - unmanageable and messy. She writes, misfortune doesn't get sprinkled out in fair proportions. SHAPIRO: This is Angie Kim's first novel, And it begins with a tragedy. Kim has three children who've each dealt with medical issues and the batteries of tests and treatments that go along with them.ĪNGIE KIM: Between all of that, I felt like these are the things that I think were in me that needed to get out because I felt the need when I was in those situations to feel like other people understood. And the story also centers on a group of mothers whose kids have autism.

from South Korea when she was a child, just like the central characters in the book. And this book taps into other themes she's familiar with, too. She worked as a trial lawyer at a big firm. It's a world that author Angie Kim knows well. The new novel 'Miracle Creek' is a courtroom thriller.

Book review miracle creek