Human Acts by Han Kang

FROM HAN KANG, WINNER OF THE 2024 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE “[Han Kang’s] intense poetic prose . . . confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”—The Nobel Committee for Literature, in the citation for the Nobel Prize The internationally bestselling author of *The Vegetarian* presents a “rare and astonishing” (*The Observer*) portrait of political unrest and the universal struggle for justice. “Compulsively readable, universally relevant, and deeply resonant . . . in equal parts beautiful and urgent.”—*The New York Times Book Review* Shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award • One of the Best Books of the Year: *The Atlantic, San Francisco Chronicle,* NPR, *HuffPost, Medium, Library Journal* Amid a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed. The story of this tragic episode unfolds in a sequence of interconnected chapters as the victims and the bereaved encounter suppression, denial, and the echoing agony of the massacre. From Dong-ho’s best friend who meets his own fateful end; to an editor struggling against censorship; to a prisoner and a factory worker, each suffering from traumatic memories; and to Dong-ho's own grief-stricken mother; and through their collective heartbreak and acts of hope is the tale of a brutalized people in search of a voice. An award-winning, controversial bestseller, *Human Acts* is a timeless, pointillist portrait of an historic event with reverberations still being felt today, by turns tracing the harsh reality of oppression and the resounding, extraordinary poetry of humanity. https://bookshop.org/p/books/human-acts-a-novel-han-kang/78f4095019cf9a32