The Vegetarian

채식주의자 · Chaesikjuuija · published 2007 · ISBN 9780553448184

Han Kang — Han Kang (b. 1970) — South Korea, writing in Korean. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2024.

“for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.” — The Nobel Committee citation

About Han Kang

South Korean writer, the first Korean and the first Asian woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her prose is at once lyrical and violent, circling historical violence, the body, and human woundedness.

How it came to be

Published in South Korea in 2007, the work became a global sensation when Deborah Smith's English translation won the 2016 International Booker Prize, opening the way for a wave of Korean literature onto the world stage.

What The Vegetarian is about

Yeong-hye, an ordinary South Korean woman, suddenly decides to stop eating meat after a series of bloody nightmares — a quiet act of refusal that gradually pushes her out of her family and society. Told in three parts through three points of view, the book lays bare the violence hidden behind "normal" convention.

Analysis & legacy

The Vegetarian begins from a decision that seems small — a woman stops eating meat — in order to expose the violence hidden inside the most "ordinary" things: the family meal, the advice to live like everyone else, even the love that wants to reshape another person. Its most delicate move: Yeong-hye is almost never allowed to speak for herself; the story is told through the three viewpoints of those around her, leaving the reader to ask who is really the "abnormal" one. Han Kang writes in prose as soft as rain and as sharp as a cut. Deborah Smith's translation won the 2016 International Booker Prize, opening a path for Korean literature to the world and helping pave the way to the Nobel in 2024.

Themes: Quiet resistance · The body · Violence & norms · Family · Trauma

Rating: 3.8/5 from 47 ratings (Open Library).

What critics say

• These portraits -- three personal takes, each largely in relation to Yeong-he, and the murkier yet dominant presence of Yeong-he throughout -- are very well done. — The Complete Review, complete-review.com
• Winner of the 2016 International Booker Prize — a story praised as "both tender and terrifying." — Booker Quốc tế 2016, The Man Booker International Prize

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