The Vegetarian wins the 2016 Man Booker International Prize, the first Korean-language novel and first for a Korean author to win this award.
On May 16, 2016, Han Kang was announced as the winner of the Man Booker International Prize for her novel The Vegetarian, shared with translator Deborah Smith. This made The Vegetarian the first Korean-language novel—and Han Kang the first Korean author—to receive this major international literary award, which recognizes the best work of fiction translated into English.
The novel, a surreal and unsettling narrative about a woman who renounces meat and eventually human interaction as an act of quiet rebellion against patriarchal violence, captivated international judges and readers alike with its spare, hypnotic prose and disturbing imagery. The win brought Han Kang, previously known mainly within Korea, to sudden global prominence.
This victory was historically significant not only for Han Kang personally but for Korean literature broadly, which had struggled for decades to gain recognition in the Anglophone literary world despite a rich and distinctive tradition. It sparked a surge of interest in Korean fiction in translation, paving the way for other Korean authors to reach international audiences. The prize also highlighted the crucial role of translators like Smith in bringing non-English literature to global readerships, a debate that intensified in literary circles following this award.