The 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the South Korean author Han Kang (born 1970) "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life".
Her major breakthrough came with the 2007 novel The Vegetarian [채식주의자], a book that portrays the violent consequences that ensue when its protagonist suddenly begins to refuse to eat meat.
Her experimental and often disturbing stories are characterized by a double exposure of pain and a correspondence between mental and physical torment, confronting historical traumas and invisible sets of rules and the fragility of human life.
Her other well-known works include Human Acts [소년이 온다], The White Book [흰], Greek Lessons [희랍어 시간] and We Do Not Part [작별하지 않는다].
After the announcement, Anders Olsson, chairman of the Academy's Nobel Committee, said in a statement: "She has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead, and in her poetic and experimental style has become an innovator in contemporary prose.
"[7] Asked by Nobel correspondent, Jenny Rydén, where someone just discovering her work should start, she suggested: "I think every writer likes his or her most recent book.
[10] Irish novelist Eimear McBride was also pleased, calling Han Kang "one of the greatest living writers"; “She is a voice for women, for truth and, above all, for the power of what literature can be.
"One can call it strange for an award that aims to do comparative justice to all national literatures that so far so few Asian or African authors have been given consideration”, Andreas Platthaus in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote.
[14] The literary critic Kim Seong-shin expressed that the Academy's choice of Han was beyond reproach, affirming: "I'd say she is the most deserving Korean novelist to be awarded the Nobel Prize.
"[14] A number of South Korean writers celebrated the news, among them Min Jin Lee, author of Pachinko, who commented: "Han Kang is a brilliant novelist who reflects our modern condition with courage, imagination, and intelligence.
I am even prouder and happier that this winning of the prize directly refutes the foolishness of trying to hide and distort Korea's past history.