Readers have selected The Vegetarian, written by Nobel Prize winner Han Kang and translated by Deborah Smith, as their favorite International Booker Prize winner.
Han’s novel, published in the U.S. in 2016 by Hogarth, follows Yeong-hye, a South Korean woman who decides to stop eating meat after having violent nightmares; the decision yields unsettling consequences for her and her family. A critic for Kirkus called the book “an unusual and mesmerizing novel, gracefully written and deeply disturbing.”
The novel was the first book to win the International Booker Prize in its current form. From 2005 to 2015, the award was given every two years to an author in recognition of their oeuvre. From 2016 onward, the prize was awarded annually to a single work of fiction translated into English and published in the U.K. or Ireland.
The Booker Prize Foundation held a poll asking readers to select their favorite winner, and The Vegetarian secured almost one third of the nearly 10,000 votes cast.
The poll was part of the foundation’s 10th anniversary celebration of the prize, which will culminate in an event at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on Friday. The event will feature singer-songwriter Dua Lipa, actor Simone Ashley, author David Diop, translators Deepa Bhasthi and Daniel Hahn, historian Olivette Otele, literary agent Laurence Laluyaux, and Booker Prize Foundation CEO Gaby Wood.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
