Han Kang’s ‘The Vegetarian’ wins Man Booker fiction prize – Monday 16 May 2016
South Korean author Han Kang won the Man Booker International Prize for fiction this week with “The Vegetarian,” an unsettling novel in which a woman’s decision to stop eating meat has devastating consequences.
“The Vegetarian” is the first of her books to be translated into English. It tells the story of Yeong-hye, a dutiful wife whose decision to forego meat uproots her whole existence.
The author said she wanted to explore “human violence, and also (ask) a question about human dignity.”
The chair of the judging panel, former Independent Literary Editor Boyd Tonkin, described Ms Han’s work as a “novel of tenderness and terror” and said it was “unforgettably powerful and original”.
He said it was the unanimous choice of the six judges.
Ms Han’s translator, Deborah Smith, shares the award for her translation despite only having learnt Korean herself in 2010.
“I have little doubt that the proposal for the establishment of an Ernest Bell Library, which would specialize in humanitarian and progressive literature, and so form a sort of center for students, will meet with a wide response.”