Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner Announces New Memoir Thank You for Your Suffering

Michelle Zauner announced on Thursday (Sept. 17) that she will release her second memoir, Thank You for Your Suffering, on April 27, 2027, through Knopf.

The book covers a year Zauner spent living in Seoul, South Korea, where she studied the language, connected with her late mother’s family, and explored a part of her heritage that she had felt separated from.

The title stems from a Korean expression Zauner heard at a hair salon. “Gosaeng haesseoyo” translates literally to “You suffered,” but functions as a polite acknowledgment of effort.

While her bestselling 2021 memoir, Crying in H Mart, centered on growing up as a Korean American woman and coping with her mother’s death, Thank You for Your Suffering focuses on her pursuit of her mother’s culture through language.

Zauner was born in Korea and raised in Eugene, Oregon, and she visited the country during summers as a child. In 2024, she and her husband and Japanese Breakfast bandmate Peter Bradley moved to Seoul for a full year. She attended language school, kept a journal in Korean and English, and documented her experiences.

Before leaving Seoul, Zauner found a handwritten diary in Korean that belonged to her mother. “I was really curious: If I did spend a year there, how much could I learn?” Zauner told ELLE.

During her stay, Zauner grew close to her aunt, who offered a less idealized view of Zauner’s mother. She also participated in the local music scene and performed songs in Korean.

Zauner stated that writing the new memoir differed from working on Crying in H Mart, shifting away from raw grief toward a period of self-growth.

The memoir precedes Zauner’s own upcoming motherhood. Reflecting on her upbringing, she expressed confidence in her readiness to become a mother.

“I just know that I’m going to do a good job because I feel like I was mothered very beautifully,” she told ELLE.

Thank You For Your Suffering is available for preorder ahead of its 2027 publication.

Zauner continues to record music with Japanese Breakfast. Their most recent album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women), was released in 2025, following the Grammy-nominated album Jubilee. Both releases entered the Billboard 200.