South Korean Nobel winner Han Kang hopes daily life 'won't change much'

Han Kang, first South Korean Nobel Prize winner for Literature, hopes to maintain normal life despite historic honor.

Author Han Kang, the first South Korean to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, said on Thursday (October 18, 2024) that she hoped her daily life would not change too much after her historic honour.

The short story writer and novelist is best known overseas for her Man Booker Prize-winning "The Vegetarian", her first novel translated into English.

The 53-year-old, who also became the first Asian woman author to win the Nobel, was chosen "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life", the Swedish Academy said last week.

Winning the Nobel was "a joyful and thankful moment, and I quietly celebrated that night," she said at an award event in Seoul.

Han Kang's win has created a sensation in South Korea, with the websites of major bookstores and publishing houses crashing after it was announced as tens of thousands rushed to order her books.

"The past week, filled with so many people sharing in my joy as if it were their own, will be remembered as a special and moving experience for me," she said.

The Nobel Prize 2024: an interactive guide