Articles Available Online

Originally published as three separate novellas, the second of which secured the prestigious Yi Sang prize, The Vegetarian has by now been translated as far afield as Poland and Vietnam, Argentina and Portugal Set in contemporary South Korea, the story follows a young wife’s refusal to eat meat and the varied, often violent, reactions this provokes in those around her Han Kang’s poetic sensibility comes through in the jagged fragments of her protagonist Yeong-hye’s thoughts, which irrupt throughout the main narrative, and transgression slides towards transformation as the young woman dreams of becoming a plant The Vegetarian is published in January 2015 by Portobello Books —DS    *     The sunny south-facing apartment was on the seventeenth floor True, the view out east was obscured by other buildings, but to the rear the mountains were visible in the distance   ‘Now you’ve forgotten all your worries,’ my father-in-law pronounced, taking up his spoon and chopsticks ‘Completely seized the moment!’   Even before she got married, my sister-in-law In-hye had managed to secure an apartment with the income she received from managing a cosmetics store Leading up to her pregnancy, the store had expanded to three times its original size, and after the birth she insisted on stopping by – only at night, and just for a short while – to make sure that everything was running smoothly in her absence As soon as my nephew Ji-woo turned 3 and went to a nursery, she’d apparently started spending all day in the shop again   I envied her husband He was an art college graduate who liked to pose as an artist, yet didn’t contribute a single penny to their household finances True, he had some property that he’d inherited, but he didn’t bring in a salary – in fact, his activities were limited to sitting around and not doing an awful lot of anything Now that In-hye had rolled up her sleeves and gone back to work, her husband was free to spend his whole life messing about with ‘art’, without a single worry to trouble his comfortable existence Not only that, but In-hye was also a skilled