The Vegetarian
South Korean novelist, born 1970. Won the International Booker Prize in 2016.
The Vegetarian is a 2007 novel by Han Kang, translated from Korean. It won the International Booker Prize in 2016.
On 3 of the 11 lists it was eligible for.
The Novel Index earns a small commission if you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you. It never affects our rankings. More about how we earn.
At a glance
- Author
- Han Kang
- First published
- 2007
- Length
- 192 pages (UK paperback)
- Original language
- Translated from Korean
- Awards
- International Booker Prize winner, 2016
- Genre
- Literary fiction, Psychological, Feminist
Is The Vegetarian worth reading?
3 of the 11 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them the International Booker Prize and The 100 best books of the 21st century (The New York Times).
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| International Booker Prize (winners and shortlists) (Booker Prize Foundation, 2016) | Winner | See the list |
| The 100 best books of the 21st century (The New York Times, 2024) | No. 49 | See the list |
| The 100 best novels of all time (The Guardian, 2026) | No. 87 | See the list |
Best edition of The Vegetarian
The edition we link to is the Granta Books paperback (2015), 192 pages, translated by Deborah Smith and Deborah Smith.
- Publisher
- Granta Books (paperback, 2015)
- Pages
- 192
- Translator
- Deborah Smith and Deborah Smith
- ISBN
- 9781846276033
How critics, prizes and readers rate The Vegetarian
Prize juries rate it most highly: it earned 50% of the points available on prize lists, against 37% on critics' lists and 0% on readers' and booksellers' lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work
Books like The Vegetarian
If you liked The Vegetarian, try Things Fall Apart, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie or A Visit from The Goon Squad.
