Publication Date:
March 5, 2012
Contact: Aurora Hughes, Senior Publicist
[email protected]
(646) 307-5633
“It’s hard not to fall in love with My Korean Deli…It tells a rollicking,
made-for-the-movies story in a wonderfully funny, deadpan style.”
—Corby Kummer, The New York Times Book Review
MY KOREAN DELI
Risking It All for a Convenience Store
By Ben Ryder Howe
Ben Ryder Howe, a Wasp descendant of the Plymouth settlers,
is a senior editor at The Paris Review when his wife, the
daughter of Korean immigrants, decides to repay her parents’
self-sacrifice with a gift: a New York deli.
And so begins Howe’s hilarious double life—living in his inlaws’ basement on Staten Island with Kay, “the Mike Tyson of
Korean mother-in-laws grandmothers,” while working at The
Paris Review and the deli he and his wife now own. MY KOREAN DELI [Picador Trade Paperback
 March 5, 2012  ISBN: 978-1-250-00247-1] is a deeply funny book about culture clashes, love,
family, money and literature, ranging from the Upper East Side to Staten Island and Brooklyn via
Plymouth, Boston, and Seoul.
“Howe has an eye for detail and a talent for colorful description, and these twin talents allow him
to make the ordinary feel magical.”— Ilana Kowarski, The Christian Science Monitor
“A charming, present-tense, only-in-New York chronicle of the agonies and ecstasies of
immigrant entrepreneurship (and of being in business with your mother-in-law).”
—Sam Roberts, The New York Times
*BEN RYDER HOWE IS AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS*
picadorusa.com  twitter.com/picadorusa  facebook.com/picadorusa
More Praise for MY KOREAN DELI
“A welcome treat.”—Karen R. Long, The Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Charming…Howe’s self-effacing humor…deals with real issues—class, race, and family—in a light
way.”—Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today
“A preppy editor ends up working the night shift behind the counter at his immigrant in-laws’
Brooklyn grocery store in this funny, poignant, true story.”
—Karen Holt, O, The Oprah Magazine
“Howe’s combining of the Upper East Side’s old world with immigrant survival skills conveys what is
absolutely the best of New York. Delightful.”
—Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times
“Howe artfully lends the reader a keen interest in his and his family’s success…Howe has created a
smartly measured and propulsive read.”—Annie Bostrom, Booklist
“[A] touching memoir…a humorous but heartfelt look into the complexities of family dynamics and
the search for identity.”—Publishers Weekly
Meet Ben Ryder Howe
March 9 // CHICAGO, IL: 57th Street Books
March 11 // MILWAUKEE, WI: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Spring Writers Festival
with Boswell Books
March 13 // SEATTLE, WA: Elliott Bay Book Company
March 15 // LOS ANGELES, CA: Book Soup
March 16 // DENVER, CO: Tattered Cover Book Store
March 19 // TULSA, OK: Booksmart Tulsa
March 21 // MYSTIC, CT: Bank Square Books
March 21 // WESTPORT, CT: The Westport Public Library
March 22 // SCARSDALE, NY: Scarsdale Public Library
† For details, visit www.picadorusa.com †
Ben Ryder Howe has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and
Outside, and his work has been selected for Best American Travel Writing. This is
his first book.
MY KOREAN DELI
Risking It All for a Convenience Store
By Ben Ryder Howe
Picador Trade Paperback
978-1-250-00247-1 / $15.00 / 320 pp
Publication Date: March 5, 2012
For more information about MY KOREAN DELI or to interview Ben Ryder Howe,
please contact Aurora Hughes in Picador’s publicity department:
[email protected] // 646-307-5633
picadorusa.com  twitter.com/picadorusa  facebook.com/picadorusa