There are times when Chang-rae Lee — Pulitzer fiction finalist, PEN/Hemingway Award winner, English professor at Stanford University, beloved novelist with a sixth one recently released — wonders if he can write.

My Year Abroad, by Chang-rae Lee477 pagesRIVERHEAD

With every book he has published, he said, he has thought about the accolades he has received since his 1995 debut, "Native Speaker,” and thought, "This is all mirrors. It could dissipate. It’s fog.”