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The Vegetarian cover art

The Vegetarian

Written by: Han Kang
Narrated by: Janet Song, Stephen Park
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Publisher's Summary

An irresistibly weird and sensuous story of betrayals, transformations and social taboos.

Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. The acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye, seeking a more 'plantlike' existence, decides to become a vegetarian, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares.

In South Korea, where vegetarianism is almost unheard of and societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision is a shocking act of subversion. Her passive rebellion manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, leading her bland husband to self-justified acts of sexual sadism. His cruelties drive her towards attempted suicide and hospitalisation. She unknowingly captivates her sister's husband, a video artist. She becomes the focus of his increasingly erotic and unhinged artworks while spiralling further and further into her fantasies of abandoning her fleshly prison and becoming - impossibly, ecstatically - a tree.

Fraught, disturbing and beautiful, The Vegetarian is a novel about modern-day South Korea but also a novel about shame, desire and our faltering attempts to understand others, from one imprisoned body to another.

©2007 Han Kang. English translation copyright © Deborah Smith 2015 (P)2016 Random House Audio

What listeners say about The Vegetarian

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

a good look at our relationship with food

enjoyable book looking at one person's pathology with food and how it affects the family

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Difficult to place this novel

This novel is very strange. I definitely enjoyed it but I don't know if I would recommend it because it's so full of perverse imagery that doesn't have a clear pay off or meaning. I will have to do further reading to figure it out. It's thought provoking, that's for sure.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Not a book on the vegetarian diet.

Title mislead me to buy it. Thought it was a book on the vegetarian diet, instead it was a wierd book that I did not enjoy.

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