On October 10, 2024, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to South Korean author Han Kang for her book, The Vegetarian. According to the press release Kang was awarded "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life." The Vegetarian also won the International Booker Prize in fiction and was the first Korean language novel to win this prestigious award.
Other novels written by Han Kang are Greek Lessons, Human Acts, I Do Not Bid Farewell, and The White Book. Her latest book, We Do Not Part, will be released in January 2025. It has been said that Han's work has reshaped the literary landscape in South Korea. A translator of one of her novels said: "Time and time again she has braved a culture of censorship and saving face, and she has come out of these attempts at silencing her with stronger, more unflinching work each time."
Ankhi Mukherjee, a professor of literature at Oxford University said that she had taught Han's work for almost two decades. Mukherjee said: "Her writing is relentlessly political - whether it's the politics of the body, of gender, of people fighting against the state - but it never lets go of the literary imagination."