The winner of the Man Booker International Prize 2016 has been announced as The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith and published by Portobello Books. Celebrating the finest global fiction in translation, the Man Booker International Prize awards both author and translator £25,000, along with a newly designed trophy.
The Vegetarian
The Vegetarian is a three-part novel that follows the story of Yeong-hye, a dutiful Korean wife who, spurred on by a dream, decides one day to become a vegetarian. This subversive act fractures her familial life and, as Yeong-hye’s rebellion manifests in increasingly bizarre and frightening forms, turns seemingly ordinary relationships into those driven by violence, shame and desire.
Han Kang is a South Korean author who currently teaches creative writing at the Seoul Institute of the Arts. Already very successful in South Korea, she has been awarded the Yi Sang Literary Prize, the Today’s Young Artist Award, and the Korean Literature Novel Award. The Vegetarian is her first novel to be translated into English.
The novel was translated by 28-year-old Deborah Smith, who only started learning Korean at the age of 21. Having learned no foreign languages until this age, Smith decided to become an English-Korean translator upon completing her undergraduate degree and moved to Korea to achieve this. She has since founded her own non-profit publishing house, Tilted Axis Press, which specialises in translating literature from Asia and Africa. In addition to The Vegetarian and works by Bae Suah, Smith has also translated Han’s novel Human Acts.
Have you read The Vegetarian? You can leave a review or see what other readers thought.
Want to know more? Download our reading notes for The Vegetarian, including information about the author and translator, as well as some discussion questions about the book.
Want ideas on what to read next? We’ve created a supporting booklist with suggestions of other books that have links to the themes of The Vegetarian, including marital breakdown, vegetarianism, Korean culture and becoming one with nature.
A view from the judges
Boyd Tonkin, chair of the 2016 judging panel, had this to say of the winner:
“Our winner, The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith, is an unforgettably powerful and original novel that richly deserves to win the Man Booker International Prize 2016. After our selection of a diverse and distinguished longlist, and a shortlist of six truly outstanding novels in first-rate translations, the judges unanimously chose The Vegetarian as our winner.
Told in three voices, from three different perspectives, this concise, unsettling and beautifully composed story traces an ordinary woman’s rejection of all the conventions and assumptions that bind her to her home, family and society. In a style both lyrical and lacerating, it reveals the impact of this great refusal both on the heroine herself and on those around her. This compact, exquisite and disturbing book will linger long in the minds, and maybe the dreams, of its readers. Deborah Smith’s perfectly judged translation matches its uncanny blend of beauty and horror at every turn.”
Our reading group review
Whitegrove Library Book Club is the reading group who read winning title The Vegetarian as part of our shadowing project.
“There has been such a buzz among our book group, since being chosen to shadow a Man Booker International short-listed title that we all looked forward to our meeting – five days before the winning announcement! The content of the book is one of the darker and more desolate books we’ve had in our ten year existence. This was reflected in our discussion; we are wise and experienced enough to have realised that not all books are light and have happy conclusions. Yet the power of this book left some feeling forlorn and some bereft that they may have missed some deeper meaning in the brutality of the book. It was interesting that some saw the ending as a sign of hope.
We spoke at length about cultural differences and gender roles in Korea, attitudes to vegetarianism, mental health and freedom. To lighten the tone, we did make some jokes about becoming a tree and the benefits of being painted with flowers, even if your brother-in-law might not be the right choice to do the honours at the next family reunion.
Universally, we applauded Deborah Smith’s translation of the novel. We speculated what words, cultural references may have been changed to make the book flow. It was commented that the words were crafted so well that it was as if it had originally been written in English. The darkness of the novella left some not satisfied but others predicted that we would long think back on the themes and images of the book. Therefore, Han Kang’s harrowing novel provided us with a deep and fluid discussion and a further interest in Korea and her literature.”
Get involved
Find out more about all of the fantastic shortlisted titles for the Man Booker International Prize.
Join in the conversation on Twitter and Facebook using #MBI2016 and #TheVegetarian, you can also follow translator Deborah Smith on Twitter.
