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The Vegetarian

Winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature
Series: Best of Granta
3.65 goodreads logo

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( 341,898 ratings, 49,560 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
In _The Vegetarian_ by Han Kang, a young woman named Yeong-hye decides to stop eating meat, disrupting her family life and societal expectations. Her seemingly simple choice unravels into a deep existential transformation, leading those around her to confront their own desires and boundaries. The story explores themes of personal autonomy, societal pressures, and the often painful search for identity.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you're intrigued by psychological dramas that delve into themes of rebellion, family dynamics, and societal expectations. It offers a compelling exploration of a woman's unsettling transformation and its impact on those around her, blending surreal and haunting elements that leave a lasting impression.

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Included in the BEST OF GRANTA launch list for 2023 and WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2016: an exhilarating, unsettling modern classic about patriarchy and rebellion, eroticism and the body, and one woman's desire for another mode of existence. WINNER OF THE 2024 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE.

WINNER OF THE 2024 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE: this haunting masterpiece is a beautiful, unsettling novel in three acts which won the Man Booker International Prize has become a modern classic.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE

'A strange, painfully tender exploration of the brutality of desire indulged and the fatality of desire ignored... Exquisite.' Eimear McBride

Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people—dutiful wife and mild-mannered office worker. One day, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares, Yeong-hye decides to become a vegetarian. But in South Korea, where vegetarianism is almost unheard-of and societal mores are strictly obeyed, it is a shocking act of subversion.

Yeong-hye's passive rebellion rapidly manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, from sexual sadism to attempted suicide, and in increasingly erotic and unhinged artworks, as all the while she spirals further into her fantasies...

Disturbing and beautiful by turns, The Vegetarian is a revelatory novel about modern day South Korea; a tale of shame, desire and our faltering attempts to understand others.

Series: Best of Granta

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    WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 'A strange, painfully tender exploration of the brutality of desire indulged and the fatality of desire ignored... Exquisite.' Eimear McBride Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people—dutiful wife and mild-mannered office worker. One day, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares, Yeong-hye decides to become a vegetarian. But in South Korea, where vegetarianism is almost unheard-of...
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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

The Vegetarian by Han Kang is frequently praised for its unsettling and hypnotic narrative, which delves into themes of desire, rebellion, and cultural norms. The novel is recognised for its elegant yet stark prose, especially through Deborah Smith's translation, which captures the psychological intricacies and surreal elements of the story. Critics highlight its visceral exploration of the societal and personal turmoil experienced by the protagonist, as well as its haunting, almost phantasmagorical quality that challenges readers' perceptions and evokes deep reflection.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781803510057

Publisher: Granta Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 17 August 2023

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Granta Books

Contributors:

  • Translated by Deborah Smith
  • Translated by Deborah Smith

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 10.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 138g

Pages: 192

About the Author

Han Kang was born in Gwangju, South Korea, and moved to Seoul at the age of ten. She studied Korean literature at Yonsei University. Her writing has won the Yi Sang Literary Prize, the Today's Young Artist Award, and the Korean Literature Novel Award. The Vegetarian, her first novel to be translated into English, was published by Portobello Books in 2015 and won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize. She is also the author of Human Acts (Portobello, 2016) and The White Book (Portobello, forthcoming 2017). She is based in Seoul.

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