Lit in Translation

The Vegetarian

채식주의자 · Chaesikjuuija

Han Kang (한강, born 1970)

Translated by Deborah Smith

English editions

In English

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Three linked novellas make up one novel. In the first, a man watches his wife Yeong-hye turn away from meat altogether, haunted by something imprinted on her as a child, and grow ever stranger to him as she longs to become a tree. The second, 'Mongolian Mark', shifts to her sister's husband, an artist whose desire for Yeong-hye becomes tangled with the urge to make art. 'Flaming Trees' completes the cycle. Across all three, a hurt mind's suffering meets an imagination drawn to the quiet life of plants.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form
Novel
Length
247 pages in the original
Genres
Family (assigned by AI)
First published
2007 by Changbi
Author's age
37 when first published
ISBN

9788936433598 (original)

9781846275623 (Portobello Books, United Kingdom)

9780553448184 (Hogarth, United States)

9781101906118 (Hogarth, United States)

9781846276033 (Portobello Books, United Kingdom)

9781803510057 (Granta, United Kingdom)

More
Wikidata