by Han Kang
First published 2016
Yeong-hye lives a quiet, predictable life with her husband until violent dreams begin tormenting her sleep. Blood and brutality fill her nights, images so disturbing she decides to stop eating meat completely. Her husband sees this small rebellion as unacceptable. What starts as arguments over dinner escalates when her brother-in-law and sister join the effort to make Yeong-hye conform. They view her vegetarianism as dangerous defiance that must be crushed. Each family member tries different methods to break her resolve, growing more desperate and invasive as Yeong-hye refuses to yield. The pressure intensifies into psychological and physical violations that push her further from reality. Her simple choice to avoid meat becomes the center of a brutal power struggle. As her relatives fight to control her, Yeong-hye retreats deeper into herself, finding strange refuge in her own mind while her body suffers their attempts at dominance. The conflict reveals the violence that was always present in her world, both in her relationships and within herself.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, psychological-thriller, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: psychological-drama, unreliable-narrator
185 pages · Paperback · Hogarth
Content warnings: abuse, mental-illness, violence