The 2024 Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to South Korean novelist Han Kang.
The prize committee said it had been awarded to Han for her “intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”.
The 53-year-old is probably best known for her novel The Vegetarian. Its English translation won the Booker Prize in 2016, becoming the first South Korean book to be awarded the accolade.
Han was quoted as saying: “I’m so surprised and absolutely I’m honoured. I grew up with Korean literature, which I feel very close to. So I hope this news is nice for Korean literature readers, and my friends and writers.”
Han is the first South Korean to win the Nobel for literature, and the 18th woman.
Bookmakers’ favourites ahead of the announcement had included Chinese writer Can Xue and many other perennial possible candidates such as Kenya’s Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Australia’s Gerald Murnane and Canada’s Anne Carson.
[Image: librairie mollat, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=153764295]