A riveting,poetic and powerful work from the author of the International Booker Prize-winning novel The Vegetarian.'Exquisite,painful and deeply courageous'Philippe Sands,Best Books of the Year,Guardian Gwangju,South Korea,1980. Amid a violent student uprising a young boy named Dong-ho is killed. As his friend searches for Dong-ho's corpse,we also meet an editor struggling against censorship,a prisoner and a factory worker,each suffering from traumatic memories,and Dong-ho's grief-stricken mother. Through their collective heartbreak and acts of hope comes a tale of a brutalised people in search of a voice. A modern classic,Human Acts has been both a controversial bestseller and an award-winning book in Korea,and it confirmed Han Kang as a writer of international importance.'(Han Kang's) way of telling about the events of a 10-day insurgency in Gwangju,South Korea in 1980 and its psychological,spiritual and political aftermath opened my eyes'Susie Orbach,Best Books of the Year,Guardian
MEDIA REVIEWS
Publisher: Granta BooksISBN: 9781846275975Number of pages: 224Weight: 173 gDimensions: 198 x 129 x 14 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
Human Acts is a stunning piece of work. The language is poetic,immediate,and brutal. Han Kang has again proved herself to be a deft artist of storytelling and imageryAn important and necessary book... a devastating and vital a work of literatureA conversation of which we rarely hear both sides: the living talking to the dead,and the dead speaking backThis ghostly narrative is elliptical and self-conscious about the difficulty of accounting for the legacy of state violence... poignant(Han Kang's) way of telling about the event of a 10-day insurgency on Gwangju,South Korea in 1980 and its psychological,spiritual and political aftermath opened my eyes to the cruelty and viciousness perpetrated on the youth of that city. Her writing is spare and yet clotted with emotionHan Kang's Human Acts is piercing: an exquisite,painful and deeply courageous account of the 1980 Gwangju massacrePowerful and disturbing... lyrical and chillingPowerful(Han Kang's) way of telling about the events of a 10-day insurgency in Gwangju,South Korea in 1980 and its psychological,spiritual and political aftermath opened my eyes to the cruelty and viciousness perpetrated on the youth of that city. Her writing is spare and yet clotted with emotionHan Kang's Human Acts is no less piercing: an exquisite,painful and deeply courageous account of the 1980 Gwangju massacreAn extraordinary novel about politics and torture,about the way we memorialize past wrongs. Deborah Smith's translation is typically lucid and readableBeautiful and brutal... A fearless examination of the state of humanity and the diagnosis isn't good. This is the pitiless kind of novel that burrows into its readerThough there's violence and bloodshed on a large scale in Han's depiction of the Gwangju Uprising,it is the small human movements that I found most vivid. That contrast helped to create the strongest experience of all the books I read this yearRaw and beautiful,Han's prose was as contrary as the human acts she described(Human Acts) unblinkingly explores the aftermath of one of the darkest moments in South Korean history... It's written with a clear-eyed exactness that is at times horrifying... Ultimately,this is a harrowing novel that deftly examines human cruelty(A) remarkable novel... A technical and emotional triumphHan Kang's Human Acts,translated by Deborah Smith,gutted me. The language finds ways to dig in and hold you even as you want to turn from the horror depictedBrilliant... Incredibly moving
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