Quote by Han Kang: “To live means to be constantly separated from those we love.”

This quote explores the painful reality that life involves continuous goodbyes and distances from the people we care about deeply. It suggests that separation is an inherent part of the human experience, bringing with it a sense of quiet sorrow.

Published after South Korea's democratization, this novel explored individual agency and societal pressures, reflecting on past traumas and their lasting psychological impact in a modern setting.

South Korean novelist and Nobel Prize in Literature laureate in 2024. Her novel The Vegetarian, translated into English in 2015, examines bodily autonomy, violence, and resistance through a woman's refusal to eat meat in conformist South Korean society.