
The Vegetarian
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Buy Now for £16.99
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Narrated by:
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Janet Song
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Stephen Park
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By:
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Han Kang
About this listen
An irresistibly weird and sensuous story of betrayals, transformations and social taboos.
Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. The acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye, seeking a more 'plantlike' existence, decides to become a vegetarian, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares.
In South Korea, where vegetarianism is almost unheard of and societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision is a shocking act of subversion. Her passive rebellion manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, leading her bland husband to self-justified acts of sexual sadism. His cruelties drive her towards attempted suicide and hospitalisation. She unknowingly captivates her sister's husband, a video artist. She becomes the focus of his increasingly erotic and unhinged artworks while spiralling further and further into her fantasies of abandoning her fleshly prison and becoming - impossibly, ecstatically - a tree.
Fraught, disturbing and beautiful, The Vegetarian is a novel about modern-day South Korea but also a novel about shame, desire and our faltering attempts to understand others, from one imprisoned body to another.
©2007 Han Kang. English translation copyright © Deborah Smith 2015 (P)2016 Random House AudioGreat story
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Violence TW
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Great listen
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Arrestingly evocative - a book I will not forget easily, and one I will recommend.
Visceral, violent, vivid
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Glad I finished it
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Beautiful prose
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An amazing story, very special. Dire narration.
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A sensational read and highly recommended
The Vegetarian WOW!
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Brilliant story, good narration
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Odd eccentric story
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