The 2024 Nobel prize in literature has been awarded to South Korean novelist Han Kang, 53, whose works embody The Vegetarian, The White E-book, Human Acts and Greek Classes.
The Nobel commitee praised Kang’s “intense poetic prose that confronts historic traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”.
The Guardian requested readers of Kang’s books to share what her writing means to them, with dozens getting in contact about their ideas.
‘I emerge painfully remodeled from all of Han Kang’s books’
I learn The Vegetarian first. I discovered it subversive, poetic, darkish, violent, and real. It was one thing not like something I had learn earlier than and it appeared to face in a league of its personal.
It’s a deeply feminist guide, purely as a result of it’s a deeply human guide that offers with a lady breaking with every thing she has ever recognized – her household, her husband, all of society. It was a transformative learn and an unpretentiously radical guide.
Human Acts was traumatising in its immediacy – it was chilling and violent and I felt like I used to be there, with these college students [during the 1980 student protests]. I emerge painfully remodeled from all of Han Kang’s books.
Having raved about her to anybody who would pay attention, I used to be actually thrilled to see her get this recognition. She is a singular voice that deserves to be heard in all places on the earth. Mia Kovačić, 34, communications director, Paris
‘It made me weep for the facility of kindness’
I went to Skiathos, Greece this yr and took Greek Classes with me. I’ve advisable it to so many individuals since, saying that nothing occurs however every thing occurs … it made me weep for the facility of kindness.
Subsequent was The Vegetarian, which I’ve had on my bookshelf for years. I learn that one on the practice to London and devoured it in a day. It says every thing and every thing occurs.
Her writing is compelling and pressing and true. It’s a sucker punch and I’m so very glad I discovered her work. Katherine Wildman, 50, copywriter, close to Newcastle
‘It all the time left intense photos in my thoughts’
Han Kang’s works consolation the grief of Korean modern historical past and society. I’ve been soothed by them and influenced by their narratives, which have all the time left intense photos in my thoughts and affected my writing and drawing.
Just like the limitless darkness and solitude of I Do Not Bid Farewell, or the disadvantaged hopes and misaligned yearnings of Human Acts. I used to be in London finding out the primary time I learn The Vegetarian. After I completed the guide, I felt as if I’d watched a piece of up to date visible artwork – it embodied the highly effective visualisation of its narrative. It captured me, tightly.
One nice power of her novels is to carry out the intangible lives of little folks all through Korean historical past and society, their historic and social griefs and agonies which can be typically disregarded. She captures the voices, and resistance, of weak folks – people who’ve fought for his or her existence. Noah Kim, 33, attracts illustrations and writes quick tales for youngsters’s books, Seoul, South Korea
‘Han Kang’s writing erases distance’
I’m presently finding out Korean and was loaned a replica of Human Acts by my professor. As soon as I began studying I couldn’t put it down, I learn late into the evening, straight to the ultimate web page.
I had been conversant in the occasions of 1980 [the Gwangju Uprising and brutal repression], however the story, because it shifted from one narrator to the opposite, affected me deeply. The extent of violence perpetrated in opposition to the scholars – the way in which a nation was terrorised – is one thing we see repeated typically the world over. It’s one thing I concern could unfold within the US.
However there generally is a sure distance once we see media studies of occasions like this. What Han Kang’s writing has carried out is erase that distance – her phrases penetrate straight by the guts, and I’m left feeling the lack of these kids as in the event that they have been the classmates of my very own son. Jenni Reid, works with kids with particular wants, Syracuse, New York
‘I used to be haunted for months afterwards’
I used to be haunted by Han Kang’s Human Acts for months after studying it. I really feel it creeping up typically, unannounced, and for no discernible motive. There are photos in that guide that may by no means go away me, like one scene at first of Human Acts – a horror that instantly casts a shadow over the remainder of the guide.
For me, what’s particular about Han Kang is that the severity of her themes and the uncooked brutality of the issues she writes about are coupled with this depth of language, this shameless, ceaseless, horrible magnificence. She’s a author who’s unafraid of bringing highly effective feelings to the desk, whose grasp of measure and proportion is admirable, all in service of evoking the unfathomable, that spontaneous violence that underlies our quotidian and which may be unearthed at any time.
I used to be leaping with pleasure for hours after the Swedish Academy’s announcement. There’s all the time been a dearth of consideration to East Asian novels within the West, the place a type of tokenism is commonly accompanied by lack of any correct curiosity, significantly for ladies’s writing, a dearth that has solely lately began to be redressed. Hugo Maio, 32, PhD researcher finding out medieval Portuguese literature, Coimbra, Portugal
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