The Vegetarian by Han Kang, WINNER OF THE 2024 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE (Best of #Booktok)

WINNER OF THE 2024 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE

WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE

One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

Before the nightmares began, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary, controlled life. But the dreams—invasive images of blood and brutality—torture her, driving Yeong-hye to purge her mind and renounce eating meat altogether. It’s a small act of independence, but it interrupts her marriage and sets into motion an increasingly grotesque chain of events at home. 

As her husband, her brother-in-law and sister each fight to reassert their control, Yeong-hye obsessively defends the choice that’s become sacred to her. Soon their attempts turn desperate, subjecting first her mind, and then her body, to ever more intrusive and perverse violations, sending Yeong-hye spiraling into a dangerous, bizarre estrangement, not only from those closest to her, but also from herself.

Celebrated by critics around the world, The Vegetarian is a darkly allegorical, Kafka-esque tale of power, obsession, and one woman’s struggle to break free from the violence both without and within her.

Reviews

A Best Book of the Year: BuzzFeed, Entertainment Weekly, Wall Street Journal, Time, Elle, The Economist, HuffPost, Slate, Bustle, The St. Louis Dispatch, Electric Literature, Publishers Weekly

“Surreal . . . [A] mesmerizing mix of sex and violence .”—Alexandra Alter, The New York Times

“[Han Kang] has been rightfully celebrated as a visionary in South Korea . . . Han’s glorious treatments of agency, personal choice, submission and subversion find form in the parable. . . . Ultimately, though, how could we not go back to Kafka? More than The Metamorphosis, Kafka’s journals and ‘A Hunger Artist’ haunt this text.”—Porochista Khakpour, The New York Times Book Review

“Indebted to Kafka, this story of a South Korean woman’s radical transformation, which begins after she forsakes meat, will have you reading with your hand over your mouth in shock.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

“[Han Kang writes in] intense poetic prose that . . . exposes the fragility of human life.”—from the Nobel Prize citation

“Kang viscerally explores the limits of what a human brain and body can endure, and the strange beauty that can be found in even the most extreme forms of renunciation.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Ferocious.”—The New York Times Book Review (Ten Best Books of the Year)

“Both terrifying and terrific.”—Lauren Groff

“Provocative [and] shocking.”—The Washington Post

Cover 1 Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Granta Books (January 1, 2015)

Language ‏ : ‎ English

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1846276039

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1846276033

Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds

Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.08 x 0.43 x 7.8 inches

Cover 2 Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1101906111

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hogarth; Reprint edition (August 23, 2016)

Language ‏ : ‎ English

Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781101906118

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1101906118

Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.2 ounces

Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.16 x 0.57 x 7.97 inches