Books by South Korean author Han Kang, who recently won the Nobel Prize for Literature, have sold more than a million copies locally since last week, three major bookstores in the country said Wednesday morning. the AFP.
At least 1.06 million books (including e-books) by Han Kang have been sold since she was awarded her Nobel Prize last Thursday, said Kyobo, Aladin and YES24, three major bookstores and online retailers from South Korea.
“Han Kang’s books are experiencing unprecedented sales. This is a situation we have never seen before,” Kim Hyun-jung, spokesperson for Kyobo, told AFP. major chain of bookstores in the country.
The first Asian woman to win this literary prize, the 53-year-old novelist was rewarded “for her intense poetic prose which confronts historical trauma and exposes the fragility of human life”.
She is best known abroad for her novel “The Vegetarian”, which won the Man Booker Prize in 2016, and which narrates the radical change in a woman’s eating habits after violent nightmares, with disastrous consequences on her life. his life as a couple and his mental health.
According to the brand specializing in the sale of new and used books Aladin, Han Kang’s Nobel has multiplied by 1,200 the sales of his own books compared to the same period last year, and by 12 the literature of South Korean as a whole.
Local media report that some printing plants were running at full capacity, especially during the weekend, to meet demand.
“I have never been so busy since I joined the company in 2006,” an Aladin employee told AFP.
