Based on Han's 1997 short story "The Fruit of My Woman", The Vegetarian is a three-part novel set in modern-day Seoul and tells the story of Yeong-hye, a part-time graphic artist and home-maker, whose decision to stop eating meat after a bloody nightmare about human cruelty leads to devastating consequences in her personal and familial life.

[3][4] It is considered as Korean translated literature's biggest win since Kyung-Sook Shin's Please Look After Mom won the closing Man Asian Literary Prize in 2012.

[7][8][9] The Vegetarian tells the story of Yeong-hye, a home-maker who, one day, suddenly decides to stop eating meat after a series of dreams involving images of animal slaughter.

While around the dinner table, Yeong-hye's family attempts to convince her to eat meat; her father, who served in Vietnam and is known for his stern temperament, slaps her when she refuses.

Her father then asks a reluctant Mr. Cheong and Yeong-hye's brother Yeong-ho to hold her arms while he force-feeds her a piece of pork.

As the section ends Yeong-hye manages to walk out of the hospital and when she is tracked down, she reveals a bird in her palm, which has a "predator's bite" in it, and she asks "Have I done something wrong?"

He imagines a love-making scene between two people, with their bodies decorated by painted flowers and, upon learning that Yeong-hye has a Mongolian spot birthmark shaped like a flower petal, he gets drawn towards her being unable to stop thinking about her and forms a plan to paint and record her in order to bring this artistic image to life.

She has separated from her husband after the events of the previous section, and is left to take care of their son in addition to her deteriorating sister.

As Yeong-hye's behavior worsens, she is admitted to a mental hospital at Mount Ch'ukseong, where, despite receiving high-level treatment for anorexia nervosa and schizophrenia, she behaves gradually more plant-like.

In-hye, who constantly ruminates about the pain of dealing with her divorce and the care of her child and who throughout the chapter shows signs of her own depression and mental instability, visits Yeong-hye regularly and continues to try to get her to eat.

Han first got the idea of writing about vegetation or plants when, as a university student, she came across the work of the noted Korean writer Yi Sang.

Talking to Sarah Shin for The White Review, she said, "While writing The Vegetarian, I was harboring questions about human violence and the (im)possibility of innocence.

"[2] In February 2016, while talking to Bethanne Patrick of Literary Hub, Han explained, "The idea for the book originally came to me as an image of a woman turning into a plant.

The second part of the book is primarily inspired by Han's experiences with the aforementioned artist whose body of work was extensively studied.

She is the founder of Tilted Axis Press, a non-profit publishing house focusing on contemporary fiction specifically from Asia.

[41] Writing for The Guardian, Claire Armitstead felt that Smith's "activist" translation helped make South Korean literature more accessible.

[43] The novella primarily deals with desire, shame, and empathy reflected by the characters' faltering attempts to understand the people around them.

[44] Charles Montgomery, a teacher in the English Interpretation and Translation Division of Dongguk University and the editor of the Korean Literature in Translation website, states that Han's "description of some evil functions of life" is reminiscent of her previous book, "Convalescence", which is a novella about a group of people each of whom have suffered different kinds of trauma.

[47] Boyd Tomkin, chairman of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize judging panel, lauded the book for its "disturbing outlook on a subject of vast interest", and Smith's "creative effort for blending beauty and horror".

"[48] Porochista Khakpour, writing for The New York Times, states that the book is nothing like typical stories about vegetarianism that end with "enlightenment".

Last year’s London Book Fair had Korea as guest of honour, in the hope of tempting English-language publishers to seek out more contemporary Korean novelists, but The Vegetarian will be hard to beat.

"[50] Claire Fallon, writing for The Huffington Post, called it "an elegant tale, in three parts, of a woman whose sudden turn to veganism disrupts her family and exposes the worst human appetites and impulses".

[52] Eileen Battersby, writing for The Irish Times, said, "The Vegetarian is more than a cautionary tale about the brutal treatment of women: it is a meditation on suffering and grief.

For all the graphic, often choreographed description, Han Kang has mastered eloquent restraint in a work of savage beauty and unnerving physicality.

[2] In 2016, the English translated edition of the book won the Man Booker International Prize for fiction, with the judging panel citing it as "unforgettably powerful and original".

[3] The prize catapulted the book's international sales, as a further 462,000 copies were ordered and printed by Changbi Publishers to assuage the demand.