Human Acts - Winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature

A riveting, poetic and powerful work from the author of the International Booker Prize-winning novel The Vegetarian.

''Exquisite, painful and deeply courageous'' Philippe Sands, Best Books of the Year, Guardian

Gwangju, South Korea, 1980. Amid a violent student uprising a young boy named Dong-ho is killed. As his friend searches for Dong-ho''s corpse, we also meet an editor struggling against censorship, a prisoner and a factory worker, each suffering from traumatic memories, and Dong-ho''s grief-stricken mother. Through their collective heartbreak and acts of hope comes a tale of a brutalised people in search of a voice.

A modern classic, Human Acts has been both a controversial bestseller and an award-winning book in Korea, and it confirmed Han Kang as a writer of international importance.

''[Han Kang''s] way of telling about the events of a 10-day insurgency in Gwangju, South Korea in 1980 and its psychological, spiritual and political aftermath opened my eyes'' Susie Orbach, Best Books of the Year, Guardian