The Vegetarian is a novel in three parts written by South Korean author Han Kang and translated into English by Deborah Smith, first published in 2007 in Korean and 2015 in English. The concept for the book came from a short story Han wrote ten years previously called "The Fruit Of My Woman," which she then reworked to make it darker and more intense. The three stories composing The Vegetarian were originally published in separate South Korean literary magazines before being collected together in the novel Chaesikjuuija. The novel deals with the violent unraveling of a woman's life after she decides to give up eating meat.
The novel is divided into three sections that detail the consequences of a woman's seemingly innocuous decision. When Yeong-hye refuses to eat meat after having a disturbing dream, she is met with violent opposition primarily from the men in her life. Part 1 (called "The Vegetarian") is told from the perspective of Mr. Cheong, Yeong-hye's husband, as their marriage falls apart. The second part, "Mongolian Mark," focuses on Yeong-hye's brother-in-law, an artist who develops a harmful obsession with Yeong-hye. The final section of the book, "Flaming Trees," chronicles Yeong-hye's deteriorating mental state from the point of view of her sister, In-hye. Though many readers interpret The Vegetarian as critiquing patriarchy in Korean society, Han has stated in several interviews that she did not set out to create a portrait of Korean society in particular. Instead, Han is concerned with universal questions about violence and innocence.
The novel has been translated into thirty-two languages, catapulting the book into the international literary scene. Han won the prestigious Yi Sang Literary Prize in 2005 for "Mongolian Mark." She then went on to receive the Man Booker International Prize in 2016 for the novel as a whole. In 2024, Han Kang was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
