The Vegetarian

Resumen del libro

Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. The acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye, seeking a more 'plant-like' existence, decides to become a vegetarian, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares.

In South Korea, where vegetarianism is almost unheard-of and societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision is a shocking act of subversion. Her passive rebellion manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, leading her bland husband to self-justified acts of sexual sadism. His cruelties drive her towards attempted suicide and hospitalisation.

She unknowingly captivates her sister's husband, a video artist. She becomes the focus of his increasingly erotic and unhinged artworks, while spiralling further and further into her fantasies of abandoning her fleshly prison and becoming - impossibly, ecstatically - a tree. Fraught, disturbing and beautiful, The Vegetarian is a novel about modern day South Korea, but also a novel about shame, desire and our faltering attempts to understand others, from one imprisoned body to another.

Biografía del autor

x{0026}lt;P x{0026}lt;B Han Kang x{0026}lt;/B (Gwangju, Corea del Sur, 1970), galardonada con el Premio Nobel de Literatura 2024, empezó su carrera como novelista al ganar el concurso literario de primavera del diario Seúl Shinmun en 1994. Es autora de las novelasx{0026}lt;I La vegetarianax{0026}lt;/I (Random House, 2024; Premio Booker Internacional 2016), x{0026}lt;I La clase de griegox{0026}lt;/I (Random House, 2023), x{0026}lt;I Actos humanos x{0026}lt;/I (Random House, 2024; Premio Manhae de Literatura de Corea y Premio Malaparte en Italia en 2017), x{0026}lt;I Blanco x{0026}lt;/I (finalista del Premio Booker Internacional 2018) e x{0026}lt;I Imposible decir adiósx{0026}lt;/I (Random House, 2024; Premio Médicis Étranger 2023), así como del poemario x{0026}lt;I Guardé el anochecer en el cajónx{0026}lt;/I (Lumen, 2025). La autora ha recibido también el Premio Yi Sang, el Premio Artista Joven del Año, el 25. Premio de Novela Coreana, el Premio de Literatura Hwang Sun-Won y el Premio de Literatura Dong Ri. Ha trabajado como profesora en el departamento de Escritura Creativa del Instituto de las Artes de Seúl hasta 2018 y en la actualidad se dedica por completo a la escritura. Su obra ha sido publicada en más de treinta idiomas.x{0026}lt;/P