Queues of customers spilled out of South Korea’s bookshops yesterday and online stores crashed as readers tried to get their hands on the work of the new Nobel prize winner, Han Kang.
The country’s largest book chain, Kyobo Book Centre, said sales of Han’s books boomed on Friday, with stocks selling out almost straight away, reported Reuters.
South Korean politicians, authors and readers celebrated her win. President Yoon Suk Yeol congratulated her in a Facebook post, and in parliament multiple government hearings were paused as officials cheered the news.
“I was very surprised when I was first told the news of the award. When the phone call ended, I slowly regained my sense of reality and started to feel emotional,” Han said. “Thank you very much for selecting me as the winner. The huge waves of warm congratulations that were delivered to me throughout the day were also surprising. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.”
“Han Kang is a brilliant novelist who reflects our modern condition with courage, imagination, and intelligence,” said the Korean-American author of Pachinko, Min Jin Lee. “She is most worthy of this global recognition.”
Han became the first South Korean to win the Nobel prize in literature yesterday. “If one Korean novelist must win the Nobel prize in literature, it would have to be Han Kang,” said South Korean author Sung-il Kim.
Nine of the Top 10 bestsellers listed on the Kyobo site are Han’s works. The top seller, The Vegetarian – her 2007 novel which was translated into English in 2015 by Deborah Smith and subsequently won the International Booker – has climbed more than 350 places.
“We cheer and rejoice,” said South Korean author Kim Bo-young. “I am even prouder and happier that this winning of the prize directly refutes the foolishness of trying to hide and distort Korea’s past history.”
Han’s works often address historical traumas. Her 2014 novel, Human Acts, is about the May 1980 Gwangju uprising, while her 2021 novel – to be published in English with the title We Do Not Part in February next year – looks at the 1948-49 Jeju uprising.
“As soon as I heard the news of Han Kang’s Nobel prize win, I thought of her dedication to writing novels that address marginalised and discriminated groups,” said South Korean author Jeon Heyjin. “The next thought was that Han Kang is from the Honam region, like Kim Dae-jung.” Kim was the president of South Korea between 1998 and 2003, and received the Nobel peace prize in 2000.
“The Honam region and Gwangju have both suffered from discrimination and prejudice, endured the atrocities of dictatorship, and played an important historical role in sustaining democracy in Korea during harsh times,” she added. “I believe that, like Kim Dae-jung, Han Kang also represents the pain and discrimination of modern Korean history through her work while demonstrating the courage for all of us to move toward a better future.”
Han’s father said that the new laureate may decide to avoid the limelight, according to Reuters. “She said given the fierce Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Palestine wars and people dying every day, how could she celebrate and hold a joyous press conference?”
He said that Han received the news of her win about 10 to 15 minutes before the rest of the world found out. She was so surprised by it that she at one point thought it might be a scam.
