The Inky Phoenix | The Vegetarian

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The Vegetarian

Han Kang

Deborah Smith

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FROM HAN KANG, WINNER OF THE 2024 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE

“[Han Kang’s] intense poetic prose . . . exposes the fragility of human life.” —The Nobel Committee for Literature, in the citation for the Nobel Prize

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY

“Ferocious.” —The New York Times Book Review (Ten Best Books of the Year)

“Both terrifying and terrific.” —Lauren Groff

“Provocative [and] shocking.” —The Washington Post

Before the nightmares began, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary, controlled life. But the dreams—invasive images of blood and brutality—torture her, driving Yeong-hye to purge her mind and renounce eating meat altogether. It’s a small act of independence, but it interrupts her marriage and sets into motion an increasingly grotesque chain of events at home.

As her husband, her brother-in-law and sister each fight to reassert their control, Yeong-hye obsessively defends the choice that’s become sacred to her. Soon their attempts turn desperate, subjecting first her mind, and then her body, to ever more intrusive and perverse violations, sending Yeong-hye spiraling into a dangerous, bizarre estrangement, not only from those closest to her, but also from herself.

Celebrated by critics around the world, The Vegetarian is a darkly allegorical, Kafka-esque tale of power, obsession, and one woman’s struggle to break free from the violence both without and within her.

A Best Book of the Year: BuzzFeed, Entertainment Weekly, Wall Street Journal, Time, Elle, The Economist, HuffPost, Slate, Bustle, The St. Louis Dispatch, Electric Literature, Publishers Weekly

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Posts about this title from The Inky Phoenix

The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Feb 28 2025

SISTER SNAKE author Amanda Lee Koe’s favorite books

On the last day of February, we’re highlighting SISTER SNAKE author @amandaleekoe’s favorite books, and yes — you’re going to want them all.

Clarice Lispector – The Hour of the Star Han Kang – The Vegetarian Ursula K. Le Guin – The Left Hand of Darkness Carmen Maria Machado — Her Body and Other Parties Bernardine Evaristo – Girl, Woman, Other Andrea Lawlor – Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl Akwaeke Emezi – Freshwater Mariana Enríquez – Things We Lost in the Fire

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Posts about this book from across Bindery

Kist Reads\ \ Kist\ \ • May 11

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Sickos! Monday's are for updates so let me know what book cheeks you're spreading this week (or what you finished last week) in the comments and let's get to what I've been up to..\ \ READING\ \ REVIEW\ \ PARABLE OF THE SOWER - [Parable #1] by OCTAVIA E. BUTLER (dystopian speculative fiction)\ \ Progress: Finished\ \ I picked up Parable of the Talents last week while finishing this, so that should tell you how much I loved our Fiction Sickos pick for this month. This is a grimdark, dystopian fan's dream, and the Discord forum was full of people commenting on how it just continues to get more dark and bleak. It's unrelenting; at no point does anything feel safe. I gotta write up my full review (I may do it w/Talents included) but yeah, this was exactly what I'd hoped it would be and I'm jazzed for Talents (which I heard is, somehow, darker).\ \ LONDON FALLING: A MYSTERIOUS DEATH IN A GILDED CITY & A FAMILY'S SEARCH FOR TRUTH by PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE (narrative historical nonfiction)\ \ Progress: 168/331\ \ PRK just has a knack for weaving together multiple angles of a story and making it all work and flow. While I think I prefer stakes and subject matter of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing at this point (I'm not sure I care yet why a narcissistic, pathological liar ate it in the Thames), it's still fun watching PRK lay out this web of deception and everything around it. I do feel like PRK is leaning into the mystery bit of it with the way he's slow dripping info that could've been revealed earlier. Either way it's still a very solid read at this point and the final half may change my mind on the stated issues.\ \ CARTHAGE'S OTHER WARS: CARTHAGINIAN WARFARE OUTSIDE THE 'PUNIC WARS' AGAINST ROME by DEXTER HOYOS (academic historical nonfiction)\ \ Progress: 93/192\ \ The Punic Wars are an obsession of mine but how Carthage became a superpower in the Western Mediterranean leading up to that often gets breezed through. Just finished their near 40 years of jockeying and warfare in Sicily with the tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse (what a scamp). Despite several dramatic swings, it amounted to not much changing in re: territory. Ultimately though Carthage achieved its main goal of maintaining the east/west divide in Sicily, preventing Dionysius from dominating it. The next section covers their conflict with the fratricidal, tyrant-slayer Timoleon of Corinth who, IIRC, hail mary ass pounds all of Sicily.\ \ I shared a snippet with in the history/nonfic Discord channel yesterday as I thought this Nicomo Cosca-coded moment was humorous:\ \ \ \ WE DO NOT PART by HAN KANG (historical fiction)\ \ Progress: 43/256\ \ Super early doors but I'm not surprised to already feel like I'm in a fever dream with a Kang book (see: The Vegetarian). This ties into the Jeju Massacre where the South Korean government, along with support from the U.S. military, violently suppressed an uprising. So I expect it to also feel somewhat like Human Acts (which was about the later Gwangju Uprising) too as we get further in while still having this eerie, poetic quality to it.\ \ PREVIEW\ \ I haven't given much thought to what's next other than Butler's Talents but I have sampled some of The Roman Empire in Crisis and may make that my next nonfiction read. I'm curious how Mike Duncan will be able to mold this same period into something for a general audience because there's so many challenges around writing a complete narrative around it. I trust 'em though.\ \ PUBLISHING IMPRINT NEWS\ \ Getting close to knowing more about a second potential book acquisition, should know how it's trending sometime this week.\ \ UPDATE: As soon as I published this, I checked my email, and OUR SECOND BOOK IS A GO! Final terms are agreed upon but the contract is still being finalized so I have to keep all the details confidential, but still, HUZZAH! Can't wait to share everything about this one with y'all!\ \ Also, have you pre-ordered A Complement of Scoundrels yet?! And if you missed it, yes, the audiobook is in development!\ \ EVERYTHING ELSE\ \ I put on Breaking Bad in the background as I started reading the Carthage book and now I'm already at S3E3. So, I guess we're doing a second re-watch. It's one of those shows, like Mad Men or Game of Thrones, that I can randomly put on and gobble through it. Game of Thrones is kind of on hold as I usually watch it at night (don't need the wee emperor seeing all the floppy dong and breasts flapping about every 5 minutes) and despite my Flyers predictably getting bounced by the Hurricanes, I'm still all in on hockey playoffs.\ \ Hope all the moms out there had a wonderful Mother's Day! Me and the boys got a Switch 2 for my wife so she's now hooked on that, and I may sneak in some game time on it this week.\ \ Got my ass kicked two sessions in a row at the climbing gym but my finger tendons are recovered and I'll hopefully be back to projecting more V4/V5 later this week.\ \ FINAL REMINDER that I'll be at BookNet Fest in Orlando, May 15-16! Get your tickets and swing through!\ \ Upgrade for $5 or login

Weekly Review/Preview - What I'm Reading/Watching/Playing/Doing!

9 books

ash.reads.horror\ \ ash\ \ • Feb 3

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Bust out your inner food critic! 🍲 \ \ These horror books all center around food. Whether consuming i

Bust out your inner food critic! 🍲

These horror books all center around food. Whether consuming it, cooking it, or critiquing it.

What’s your favorite food centered horror book?

#hororrbooks #foodhorrorbooks #horrorbooksta #horrorbookreels

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Kist Reads\ \ Kist\ \ • Aug 8 2025

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(VIDEO) Women in Translation Month - Book Recommendations

Fiction book recommendations for books written by women authors that have been translated into English (s/o Women in Translation Month). You can read these in a single sitting or over a weekend if you’re locked in!

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Kist Reads\ \ Kist\ \ • Jun 2 2025

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May Reading Wrap-Up (VIDEO)

May reading wrap-up covering the 8 books I read this month from a great mix of genres.

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Boundless Press\ \ Jananie\ \ • Mar 19 2025

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if you like this book, read this one! 🩷 BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS 📚

hope you enjoy these recommendations 💖

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Boundless Press\ \ Jananie\ \ • Mar 16 2025