Collection: The Vegetarian

The most famous Korean novel internationally. It won the International Booker Prize in 2016 and propelled Han Kang to winning the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature. Yeong-hye, an ordinary housewife, suffers from horrific, blood-soaked nightmares and suddenly decides to stop eating meat. This simple act of refusal is treated by her husband and family as a dangerous rebellion. Told from three perspectives—her controlling husband, her artist brother-in-law, and her sister—the story charts Yeong-hye's tragic psychological decline as she attempts to purge all human violence from her body and transform into a plant.