International News

LONDON, May (APP/AFP): South Korean author Han Kang won the Man
Booker International Prize on Monday, sharing the #50,000 ($72,000, 63,500 euros) award with her translator — who had only taught herself Korean three years before.
Han Kang, 45, an author and creative writing teacher who is already
successful in South Korea, is likely to enjoy a spike in international sales
following the win for “The Vegetarian”.
“I’m so honoured” she told AFP. “The work features a protagonist who
wants to become a plant, and to leave the human race to save herself from the dark side human nature.
Described as “lyrical and lacerating” by chairman of the judges Boyd
Tonkin, the tale traces the story of an ordinary woman’s rejection of
convention from three different perspectives.
It was picked unanimously by the panel of five judges, beating six
other novels including “The Story of the Lost Child” by Italian sensation Elena Ferrante and “A Strangeness in My Mind” by Turkey’s Orhan Pamuk.
“This is a book of tenderness and terror,” Boyd told guests at the
award ceremony dinner at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
For the first time this year, the award went jointly to the
translator, Deborah Smith, 28, who spoke only English until she was 21 and only started learning Korean three years before she embarked on the translation.
The international edition of Britain’s Man Booker Prize has been
awarded every two years since 2005 for a body of work to a living author whose work was written or available in English.
But from this year, it will be an annual award granted for a single
work of fiction that has been translated into English and published in Britain.