Read these books by Nobel Prize 2024 winner Han Kang

The Vegetarian A bitesized reviewHan Kangrsquos International Booker Prize winning novel The Vegetarian is a searing look at the radical choices the protagonist makes in a rigid society and their consequent costs It traces the life of a young Korean woman YeongHye who wakes up from a visceral dream one day and decides to turn vegetarian against the backdrop of an imperceptive environmentKangrsquos decision of giving readers three different points of view to portray this helps us witness how various people in the protagonistrsquos life mdash her husband her brotherinlaw and her sister mdash deal with her vegetarianism What we get is a tapestry of misunderstandings a refusal of her family to fully comprehend Yeong Hyersquos decision leading to her physically and mentally weakened condition One hears YeongHye only through her narration of her dream to her husbandDeborah Smithrsquos translation brings out the manifestations of violence prevalent throughout the book without naming them The details speak for themselves The narrative movement is cinematic such that at no point does one feel one is reading a translated text Readers will find the last chapter particularly poignantFurther recommendationsReadThe White Book Written as fragments the protagonist wrestles with grief as she mourns the loss of her sister through the colour white While white stands for death Kang also considers how it stands just as much for rebirth and life Short passages switch between the most tangible objects like the paint on the door salt snowflakes to intangible possibilities like boundary the direction of the light a laugh and partingHuman Acts Kangrsquos sixth title is an exploration of the past It draws from incidents that occurred in Gwangju South Korea in the year 1980 The city saw a massive student uprising a response to the change in power and the implementation of martial law Thousands of people were killed in the suppression by the military that followed it Kangrsquos novel follows a young boy Dongho and others in his life who encountered the outrage in different waysAvailable At leading bookstores and estoresListenLouisiana Literature Podcast While growing up Kang spent a lot of time reading but recollects revisiting the same texts afresh with new questions during her teenage years In the episode she shares how this shaped her as a writer ldquoSince I was a child it has been overwhelming to look at human beingshellip all the things we have committed throughout historyrdquo and at the same time seeing ldquodignified human beings all around the world Itrsquos like an impossible riddle for merdquo She reveals while exploring the two spectrums of humanity mdash the sublimity and the horror mdash through her workDeborah SmithNobel Prize Conversations Jenny Ryden a member of the Nobel Committee speaks to the author after the award in this podcast Kang shares what it means for a writer of Korean literature to have received the award and who inspired her in her early years She also recommends which of her books firsttime readers must begin with On being asked how she plans to celebrate the award the author replies ldquoIrsquom going to have tea with my son and I will celebrate it quietly tonightrdquoLog on to Spotify Apple Podcast