Category - Fiction / Horror fiction
Format - Paperback
Condition - Good
Listed - 3 months ago
Views - 15
Wishes - 2
Ships From - Texas
Est. Publication Date - Aug 2016
Seller Description
In her first English novel, South Korean writer Han tells a story about strange obsessions and metamorphosis divided into three parts, each with a distinct voice. Yeong-hye and her husband lead a calm and uneventful life with no passion or anything that could disrupt their daily routine until the day Yeong-hye takes all the meat from the fridge, throws it away, and announces that she is a vegetarian. Her abrupt and unyielding decision is inexplicable to her family and a society that views unconventional choices with distaste and concern bordering on fear. Yeong-he tries to explain that she had a dream, a horrifying nightmare of bloody and intimate violence, and that is why she refuses to eat meat. However, her husband and family remain perplexed and disturbed. As Yeong-hye sinks deeper into both nightmares and the conviction that she must transform herself into a different kind of being, her condition alters the lives of three members of her family – her husband, brother-in-law, and sister. This forces them to confront unsettling desires and the alarming possibility that even with the closest familiarity, people remain strangers. Each of these relatives claims a section of the novel, and each section is strikingly written, equally absorbing whether lush or emotionally bleak. The book insists on its reader's attention, with an almost hypnotically serene atmosphere that is interrupted by surreal images and frighteningly recognizable moments of ordinary despair. Han writes convincingly of the disruptive power of longing and the choice to either embrace or deny it, using details that are nearly fantastical in their strangeness to cut to the heart of the very human experience of discovering that one is no longer content with life as it is. Overall, it is an unusual and mesmerizing novel, gracefully written and deeply disturbing.
Additional Information
The Vegetarian: A Novel
ISBN: 9781101906118
Publisher Description
Winner of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Publisher's Weekly • Buzzfeed • Entertainment Weekly • Time • Wall Street ...
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