The Guardian published an interview with author Han Kang earlier this month. As the novel 'Human Acts' was published in January in the U.K., the author Han Kang has been gaining more and more attention from British media.
"One of South Korea's best kept secrets," said The Guardian about author Han Kang in the British daily's recent interview with her. The article said that people like Susie Orbarch, author of "Bodies," and human rights lawyer Philippe Sands are counted among some of her "admirers in the U.K."
As her novel "Human Acts" was published in January in the U.K., the newspaper spoke broadly with her about her inspiration and motivation to write the novel and reviewed some of her works that have been published in the U.K.
Han Kang (middle) speaks with Philippe Sands (right) at Foyles bookstore in London on Jan. 13.
Han Kang has been facing growing attention, particularly in the U.K., as "Human Acts" is now the author's second novel to be published there, after "The Vegetarian" in early 2015. This growing wave of popularity is exactly what the novel's publisher forecasted at the end of last year. Calling "The Vegetarian" the publisher's "book that deserved to do better" last year in the Guardian article, Bella Lacey, editorial director at Granta/ Portobello, said that she's "confident" that "Human Acts" would "cement her reputation." Even without the publisher's confidence, some other acclaimed young writers, like Helen Oyeyemi and Eimear McBride, earlier praised "The Vegetarian" and picked it as a recommendation for their reading lists.
'Human Acts' is published in the U.K. in January this year. Earlier, 'The Vegetarian' was published in 2015 in the U.K. and was also recently published in the U.S.
Meanwhile, newspapers and media in the U.S., like The New York Times and the Washington Post, have also been publishing reviews of "The Vegetarian," as the novel was just published in the U.S. in February.
While most of the reviews talk about the intense and disturbing novel itself and about the author who's barely known among U.S. readers, some have shown a broader curiosity in Korean literature. The New York Times' article, calling the novel "a cult international best seller," shares some opinions from literary experts on Korean literature who say that "it is a shame that South Korea's vibrant and diverse literary culture has been largely overlooked by Western publishers." Along with this, the article talked about some of the Korean literature that's available in English, such as the "Library of Korean Literature" series put out by Dalkey Archive Press and another Korean author, Bae Suah's "Nowhere to be Found," which was published by AmazonCrossing.
At present, only two of Han Kang's works are available in English, the two novels "The Vegetarian" and "Human Acts."
"The Vegetarian," originally published in Korean in 2004, is a surreal story of a woman who rejects meat and eventually turns into a tree that digs into the nature of human violence. "Human Acts," published in Korean in 2014, tells the story of a young boy who's looking for the dead body of his friend who disappeared during the democracy movement in the city of Gwangju in 1980. In this novel, the author once again raises the issue of human violence and dignity.
Finally, in a recent interview with U.S. broadcaster NPR, the author said that she "wanted to deal with [her] long-lasting question about human violence and the possibility or impossibility of refusing it," and added that she "will be happy if the readers could share [her] questions."
By Chang Iou-chung
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photo: londonkoreanlinks.net
icchang@korea.kr
