the vegetarian - by han kang

I read this book after purchasing it from a museum. It is both terrifying and mesmerizing. I started with a good laugh and then read on in shock. Han Kang writes from three different perspectives while maintaining the main character's thread of thought and feelings throughout. She vividly captures human nature and the traits of the different voices. This is the author's first book translated into English and she is a winner of The Booker International Prize as well as of the Nobel Prize in Literature (2004). You can read more about her debut in the Anglophone world.

"Before the nightmares began, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary, controlled life in modern-day South Korea. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. But then Yeong-hye, seeking a more ‘plant-like’ existence, commits a shocking act of subversion: overnight, she vows to give up eating meat. Despite her husband and family’s attempts to intervene and force her to come to her senses, her rebellion manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms. Gradually, Yeong-hye spirals further and further into her fantasies in the hope of abandoning her fleshly constraints altogether."

language: english

author: Han Kang

translation: Deborah Smith