The Vegetarian.

KANG, Han; Translated by Deborah Smith.

$850.00

Item Number: 147080

London: Portobello Books, 2015.

First edition, early printing of the the first Korean language novel to win the International Booker Prize for fiction. Octavo, original pictorial wrappers. Boldly signed by the author in Korean and English on the title page. In near fine condition. Translated by Deborah Smith.

South Korean writer Han Kang began her literary journey writing award-winning poems and short stories before turning her talents to novels. Han has won the Yi Sang Literary Award, the 25th Korean Novel Award, the 2000 Today's Young Artist Award, and the 2010 Dongri Literary Award, and was recently awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature by the Swedish Academy for her "intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life," making her the first South Korean writer and the first female Asian writer to be awarded the prize. 'The Vegetarian' was Han's first work to be translated to English. It has since won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize and placed as one of The New York Times's "100 Best Books of the 21st century." "It's a bracing, visceral, system-shocking addition to the Anglophone reader's diet. It is sensual, provocative and violent, ripe with potent images, startling colours and disturbing questions..." (Guardian). "Elegantly translated into bone-spare English by Deborah Smith... 'The Vegetarian' whispers so clearly, it can be heard across the room, insisently and with devastating, quiet violence" (Nate Statesman).