The Vegetarian, by Han Kang

 

Booker Prize: Winner International Booker 2016

Plot Time and Place: Present day South Korea

Opening sentence: "Before my wife turned vegetarian, I'd always thought of her as completely unremarkable in every way".

Plot summary: The story is about a woman who suddenly decides to stop eating meat. This generates a lot of conflicts with her family because, up until this point, she had always been a very passive, subservient person. 

Review: I really enjoyed this. The novel is divided into three parts. The first part is narrated by the protagonist, Yeong-hye's, husband. The second part is told from the point of view of Yeong-hye's brother-in-law. And the third part is told from her sister's point of view. So we almost never actually hear Yeong-hye's voice. In fact, she has no voice. She feels stifled by Korean social norms and everyday sexism. And refusing to eat meat is the way that she finds to take a stand, to fight back. Also the story includes some imaginary/ surreal elements, which reminded me of Murakami, and some Korean-style gore (which I kind of like). 

Rating: 4 out of 5