The Vegetarian
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First published in South Korea in 2007, The Vegetarian is a haunting and unsettling novel about desire, rebellion and the limits of human identity. When Yeong-hye, an apparently ordinary housewife in Seoul, begins experiencing violent dreams, she makes the sudden decision to stop eating meat. Her refusal, initially dismissed as an eccentricity by her husband, soon provokes hostility from her family and exposes the rigid expectations governing their lives. Told through three distinct perspectives — those of her husband, her brother-in-law and her sister, In-hye — the novel follows the devastating consequences of Yeong-hye’s increasingly radical rejection of the world around her.
Combining psychological intensity with surreal and sometimes disturbing imagery, Han Kang explores bodily autonomy, patriarchal violence, family obligation, desire and the fragile boundary between humanity and nature. The novel's spare, lyrical prose gives its unsettling subject matter an extraordinary delicacy, creating a tension between beauty and brutality. Winner of the 2016 International Booker Prize, The Vegetarian established Han Kang as a major voice in contemporary world literature, and its international recognition preceded her 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature.
From the book
“Before my wife turned vegetarian, I’d always thought of her as completely unremarkable in every way.”
— Han Kang, The Vegetarian
On The Vegetarian
“Sentence by sentence, The Vegetarian is an extraordinary experience.”
— Daniel Hahn, The Guardian