South Korean author wins 2024 Nobel Prize in literature

South Korean author Han Kang won the 2024 Nobel Prize in literature.

Han was recognized for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life, the Nobel committee announced on Thursday, News.Az reports.

Born in 1970 in South Korea, where she still resides, Han is the daughter of a "reputed novelist" and has a keen interest in art and music, according to the committee's statement.

She began her writing career in 1993, with her major international breakthrough coming in 2007 with the novel The Vegetarian. The book explores the violent repercussions that follow the protagonist Yeong-hye's refusal to conform to societal norms regarding food intake.

The committee highlighted that "Han Kang’s work is characterized by this double exposure of pain, a correspondence between mental and physical torment with close connections to Eastern thinking." It also noted her "unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead," and praised her innovative poetic and experimental style in contemporary prose.

News.Az