A handsome deluxe edition of the sensational, genre-defying novel by Han Kang, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, in honor of the tenth anniversary of the English translation, with an afterword by the author
“[Han Kang’s] intense poetic prose . . . exposes the fragility of human life.”—The Nobel Committee for Literature, in the citation for the Nobel Prize
WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE
A NEW YORK TIMES 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY
A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST FICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“Ferocious.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Both terrifying and terrific.”—Lauren Groff
“Provocative [and] shocking.”—The Washington Post
Celebrated by critics around the world, The Vegetarian is a darkly allegorical, Kafka-esque tale of power, obsession, and one woman’s struggle to break free from the violence both without and within her.
Before the nightmares began, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary, controlled life. But the dreams—invasive images of blood and brutality—torture her, driving Yeong-hye to purge her mind and renounce eating meat altogether. It’s a small act of independence, but it interrupts her marriage and sets into motion an increasingly grotesque chain of events at home. As her husband, her brother-in-law and sister each fight to reassert their control, Yeong-hye obsessively defends the choice that’s become sacred to her. Soon their attempts turn desperate, subjecting first her mind, and then her body, to ever more intrusive and perverse violations, sending Yeong-hye spiraling into a dangerous, bizarre estrangement, not only from those closest to her, but also from herself.
When Hogarth first published Deborah Smith’s translation of Han Kang’s “provocative [and] shocking” (The Washington Post) in 2016, we introduced English-language readers to one of the most original and defining writers of the twenty-first century. Since then, Han has gone on to become one of the most distinct and celebrated writers of our time, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, and The Vegetarian the defining statement of her unparalled talent and artistic vision.
