Quotes

“I believe that trauma is something to be embraced rather than healed or recovered from. I believe that grief is something which situates the place/space of the dead within the living; and that, through repeatedly revisiting that place, through our pained and silent embrace of it over the course of a whole life, life is, perhaps paradoxically, made possible.”
As quoted in "Interview with Han Kang" in The White Review March 2016
“I don’t see a single concept of ‘national’ or ‘literature’. Rather, I’ve always been fascinated by language. I enjoy contemplating the great depth, complexity and delicacy of the layers of a culture in which a single language is in-built.”
As quoted in "Interview with Han Kang" in The White Review March 2016
“I have tried my best to come back to my desk again. I needed a peaceful corner of my own for my next work.”
On the issue of her publicity in "Korea's Kafka? Man Booker winner Han Kang on w

Books by Han Kang in order

Books by Han Kang in the order they were published, from Kŏmŭn sasŭm (1998) to We Do Not Part (2021).

Authors readers of Han Kang often like, from our AI-written notes

Yoko OgawaQuiet, precise Japanese fiction with unsettling premises and attention to bodies, memory and state-like control, as in The Memory Police.
Samantha SchweblinShort, unsettling fiction from Argentina that uses compressed form to show violence and the body in everyday settings, as in Fever Dream.
Sayaka MurataNovels about body, social expectation and refusal of normal roles, with a dry, unsettling tone, as in Convenience Store Woman.
Kazuo IshiguroRestrained narration where what is left unsaid carries the emotional weight, as in The Remains of the Day.
Toni MorrisonNovels that treat historical violence and its after-effects through fragmented, layered narrative and attention to the body, as in Beloved.
Ocean VuongLyrical prose by a writer who also publishes poetry, dealing with family, violence and the body across history and personal memory, as in On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.