Story highlights
South Korean author Han Kang and translator Deborah Smith win accolades
Man Booker International Prize celebrates non-English language books translated and published in UK
South Korean author Han Kang won the prestigious Man Booker International Prize on Monday for “The Vegetarian,” a novel about a “completely unremarkable” woman, to use the book’s description, who subverts societal norms including, in a nod to the title, giving up eating meat.
Originally written and published in Korean, it was translated by a 28-year-old Briton who, by her own admission, was “monolingual until the age of 21,” and who only chose to pursue Korean due to a lack of English-Korean translators.
The translation of the source work is a crucial factor in choosing the Man Booker International Prize, which celebrates non-English language books translated and published in the United Kingdom.
The book is a “concise, unsettling and beautifully composed story” judging panel chairman Boyd Tonkin said, and said the tale of a woman’s rejection of family and society’s traditions is told in a style “both lyrical and lacerating.”
According to the Man Booker website, the work can be “written in any language as long as it was widely available in English.” This is the first year the prize was awarded on the basis of a single book instead of an author’s body of work.
Strahov Abbey library, Prague, Czech Republic
The Library: A World History is the most complete account of library buildings to date. Here James Campbell and Will Pryce take us on a virtual journey through some of their favorites.
Will Pryce: "Visiting this library was an extraordinary, if fraught, experience. We hiked up a mountain only to be told that we weren't allowed to photograph the interior. Fortunately we had a Korean student of James's with us who pleaded with the Abbott and little by little we negotiated our way in. First we could take a picture through the door, then from just inside and so on. The collection is revelatory because you realize that you are looking, not at books, but printing blocks and that they date from 1251 -- reminding us that the Koreans were printing for centuries before Gutenberg."
James Campbell: "This is the oldest surviving Chinese library, dating from 1561. It is very dark because you were not intended to read inside, but to take your book to the garden or perhaps your room. The books have since been removed so this is the last picture that will ever be taken with the books on the their original shelves."
Will Pryce: "This is an extraordinary space, a temple to the industrial age which creates an almost cathedral-like effect. There are thousands of books wherever you look and gorgeous ornate balustrades. Despite all the classical details it's actually made of iron and spans the weight of this huge library above the concert hall below."
James Campbell: "This is the closest you can get to what a medieval library looked like. It was built for Malatesta Novello, a member of a prominent Italian aristocratic family, and it still contains original books, in their original places."
James Campbell: "Although the building was completed in 1373 and is one of the oldest academic libraries in the world still in continuous daily use, the fittings date from the late sixteenth century. It is less ornate than Rococo libraries in palace or monastery complexes, because universities did not have access to the same amount of money, but it is still extraordinarily beautiful."
Will Pryce: "It's an extraordinary piece of design, a statement of confidence by the Venetian Republic. It lies at the center of Jacopo Sansovino's scheme to re-design St Mark's square, though the building was completed after his death. The vestibule houses the Grimani collection of classical sculpture under a ceiling by Titian. While the original lecterns have gone, the superb interior design of the library gives us a sense of the richness of Venetian cultural life in this period."
Will Pryce: "Arts End is one of most lovely corners of the group of libraries that constitute the Bodleian. Under the galleries there are little desks where readers face the bookshelves of one of the earliest wall-system libraries."
James Campbell: "This is one of the largest monastic libraries ever built. The whole thing is a complete work of art. The corridors and staircase that leads to it is relatively simple, so when you enter this stunning space flooded with light there is almost a moment of revelation, a theatrical effect. There are no desks to work at because these library rooms were never intended for study, but for impressing visitors. The books were taken back to the monks' warm cells to be read. It was built in 1776, a piece de resistance of rococo design."
James Campbell: "This is perhaps the largest high school library ever constructed. From the outside it looks like a severe brick box punctured by windows. The inside is completely different. The main space rises the whole height of the building and the bookcases are behind the dominating concrete structure. Students can read with privacy on carrels next to the windows which they can decorate with their own possessions."
Will Pryce: "This is a very imposing library from a time when Portugal was extremely wealthy and powerful. It is very dark but features intricate gold leaf which gives it magical luminosity. The backs of the bookcases each have different color, and there are integrated ladders that pull out, and secret doors that lead to reading rooms."
WIill Pryce: "This library was ground-breaking. It established the template of using books to decorate the walls of the library which we've been using ever since. The great hall is a harmonious combination of bookshelves, books and a wonderful painted ceiling. It was complete by 1585 and influenced everything that followed it."
James Campbell: "The Mafra Palace Library in Mafra, Portugal is at 88 meters the longest Rococo monastic library in the world. Sadly the original designs are lost but we think it would have been covered in gold leaf with an ornate painted ceiling. However, because the construction lasted from 1717 to 1771, by the time it was completed a simplified decoration was adopted. The library also hosts a colony of bats who come out at night to feed on the insects who would otherwise eat the books."
James Campbell: "Outside it looks like a white box, so there is an element of surprise when you go in. All light comes through the stones in the wall, and the honey-color trickle of sun rays makes it magical. It is one of the largest buildings in the world devoted entirely to rare books and manuscripts, and it is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The elegance of the Beinecke later inspired the glass-walled structure that holds the original core collection of the British Library."
Will Pryce: "This is best solution I have seen to the problems of building a library on a contemporary scale. From the outside it's a simple rectangle but inside a series of voids have been opened up creating a complete variety of spaces to work. There are secluded areas for those who like to be surrounded by books and more open ones for those who prefer to be around people. It seemed hugely popular with the students."
Told in three voices from three perspectives, the novel was selected from 155 titles.
The judging panel recognized translator Deborah Smith for her “perfectly judged translation,” saying it mirrored the original prose’s “uncanny blend of beauty and horror at every turn.”
“This compact, exquisite and disturbing book will linger long in the minds, and maybe the dreams, of its readers,” Tonkin said.
The short list for this year’s prize was notable for its diversity, with novels from the idyllic mountains of Austria to the hellish conditions of 1950’s Chinese labor camps, including Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk’s latest work, “A Strangeness in My Mind.”
Pamuk, and the Angolan author Jose Eduardo Agualusa, have both previously won the Independent Foreign Fiction prize, the predecessor of the Man Booker International.
Authors as notable as Philip Roth and Chinua Achebe have previously won the award. Last year’s Man Booker International Prize was won by Hungarian author Laszlo Krasznahorkai.
From 2015 onward, the $72,000 (£50,000) prize has been awarded annually, and is divided equally between the author and the translator of the winning entry. The other short-listed entries each receive $1,437 (£1,000).
The prize is a sister prize of the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction, which is awarded to English-language fiction annually. First awarded in 1969, last year’s prize was awarded to Jamaican novelist Marlon James for “A Brief History of Seven Killings,” his fictional retelling of the 1976 attempted murder of Bob Marley.
“The Vegetarian” won out over six shortlisted books: