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Read our Privacy and Cookie Policies to find out more. 1. Culture 2. Books 3. News Man Booker International 2016: Han Kang and British translator share £50,000 prize for The Vegetarian The South Korean writer beat José Eduardo Agualusa and Elena Ferrante to scoop the award for foreign works translated into English * Caroline Mortimer * @cjmortimer * Monday 16 May 2016 20:41 BST * IFRAME: https://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebo ok.com%2FIndependentCulture%2F&width=450&layout=button&action=like&size =large&show_faces=false&share=false&height=35&appId=235586169789578 Click to follow The Independent Culture han-kang-deborah-smith-vegetarian-getty.jpg Han Kang (right) and her British translator, Deborah Smith, with the winning book, The Vegetarian GETTY South Korean author Han Kang has won the new-style Man Booker International prize for her book The Vegetarian, sharing the £50,000 prize with her British translator. The Vegetarian is a dark and occasionally shocking novel about a woman who turns vegetarian - something that is extremely uncommon in South Korean society - and the way this affects her relationships with the people around her, including her sister and her brother-in-law, an artist who becomes obsessed with her. This is the first year that The Man Booker International prize is awarded for a single book, rather than for a body of work. It follows the prize's joining together with the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. [5785404.jpg] Read more The Vegetarian by Han Kang; trans. Deborah Smith, book review: Strong The prize follows the recent success of several acclaimed foreign works by authors - such as Norway's Karl Ove Knausgaard and Italy's Elena Ferrante - published in English. Ms Han beat out Angolan writer José Eduardo Agualusa with his novel A General Theory of Oblivion and Elena Ferrante's final Neapolitan novel The Story of a Lost Child. The chair of the judging panel, former Independent Literary Editor Boyd Tonkin, described Ms Han's work as a "novel of tenderness and terror" and said it was "unforgettably powerful and original". He said it was the unanimous choice of the six judges. Ms Han's translator, Deborah Smith, shares the award for her translation despite only having learnt Korean herself in 2010. man-booker-international.jpg The novel fought out off a strong shortlist of translated works Ms Smith said she had only spoken English until the age of 21 but decided to move to Korea after completing her English Literature degree to immerse herself in the language after she noticed there were few English-Korean translators. She said she still speaks Korean like "very much like somebody who learned it from a textbook". She said: "I had no connection with Korean culture - I don't think I had even met a Korean person - but I wanted to become a translator because it combined reading and writing and I wanted to learn a language. Culture news in pictures * * * * * 30 show all Culture news in pictures * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 1/30 30 September 2016 An employee hangs works of art with "Grand Teatro" by Marino Marini (R) and bronze sculpture "Sfera N.3" by Arnaldo Pomodoro seen ahead of a Contemporary Art auction on 7 October, at Sotheby's in London REUTERS * 2/30 29 September 2016 Street art by Portuguese artist Odeith is seen in Dresden, during an exhibition "Magic City - art of the streets" AFP/Getty Images * 3/30 28 September 2016 Dancers attend a photocall for the new "THE ONE Grand Show" at Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin, Germany REUTERS * 4/30 28 September 2016 With an array of thrift store china, humorous souvenirs and handmade tile adorning its walls and floors, the Mosaic Tile House in Venice stands as a monument to two decades of artistic collaboration between Cheri Pann and husband Gonzalo Duran REUTERS * 5/30 27 September 2016 A gallery assistant poses amongst work by Anthea Hamilton from her nominated show "Lichen! Libido!(London!) Chastity!" at a preview of the Turner Prize in London REUTERS * 6/30 27 September 2016 A technician wearing virtual reality glasses checks his installation in three British public telephone booths, set up outside the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The installation allows visitors a 3-D look into the museum which has twenty-two paintings belonging to the British Royal Collection, on loan for an exhibit from 29 September 2016 till 8 January 2017 AP * 7/30 26 September 2016 An Indian artist dressed as Hindu god Shiva performs on a chariot as he participates in a religious procession 'Ravan ki Barat' held to mark the forthcoming Dussehra festival in Allahabad AFP/Getty Images * 8/30 26 September 2016 Jean-Michel Basquiat's 'Air Power', 1984, is displayed at the Bowie/Collector media preview at Sotheby's in New York AFP/Getty * 9/30 25 September 2016 A woman looks at an untitled painting by Albert Oehlen during the opening of an exhibition of works by German artists Georg Baselitz and Albert Oehlen in Reutlingen, Germany. The exhibition runs at the Kunstverein (art society) Reutlingen until 15 January 2017 EPA * 10/30 24 September 2016 Fan BingBing (C) attends the closing ceremony of the 64th San Sebastian Film Festival at Kursaal in San Sebastian, Spain Getty Images * 11/30 23 September 2016 A view of the artwork 'You Are Metamorphosing' (1964) as part of the exhibition 'Retrospektive' of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo at Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany. The exhibition runs from 25 September 2016 to 1 January 2017 EPA * 12/30 22 September 2016 Jo Applin from the Courtauld Institute of Art looks at Green Tilework in Live Flesh by Adriana Vareja, which features in a new exhibition, Flesh, at York Art Gallery. The new exhibition features works by Degas, Chardin, Francis Bacon and Sarah Lucas, showing how flesh has been portrayed by artists over the last 600 years PA * 13/30 21 September 2016 Performers Sean Atkins and Sally Miller standing in for the characters played by Asa Butterfield and Ella Purnell during a photocall for Tim Burton's "Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children" at Potters Field Park in London Getty Images * 14/30 20 September 2016 A detail from the blanket 'Alpine Cattle Drive' from 1926 by artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is displayed at the 'Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum for Contemporary Arts' in Berlin. The exhibition named 'Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Hieroglyphen' showing the complete collection of Berlin's Nationalgallerie works of the German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and will run from 23 September 2016 until 26 February 2017 AP * 15/30 20 September 2016 A man looks at portrait photos by US photographer Bruce Gilden in the exhibition 'Masters of Photography' at the photokina in Cologne, Germany. The trade fair on photography, photokina, schowcases some 1,000 exhibitors from 40 countries and runs from 20 to 25 September. The event also features various photo exhibitions EPA * 16/30 20 September 2016 A woman looks at 'Blue Poles', 1952 by Jackson Pollock during a photocall at the Royal Academy of Arts, London PA * 17/30 19 September 2016 Art installation The Refusal of Time, a collaboration with Philip Miller, Catherine Meyburgh and Peter Galison, which features as part of the William Kentridge exhibition Thick Time, showing from 21 September to 15 January at the Whitechapel Gallery in London PA * 18/30 18 September 2016 Artists creating one off designs at the Mm6 Maison Margiela presentation during London Fashion Week Spring/Summer collections 2017 in London Getty Images * 19/30 18 September 2016 Bethenny Frankel attends the special screening of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" to celebrate the 25th Anniversary Edition release on Blu-Ray and DVD in New York City Getty Images for Walt Disney Stu * 20/30 17 September 2016 Visitors attend the 2016 Oktoberfest beer festival at Theresienwiese in Munich, Germany Getty Images * 21/30 16 September 2016 Visitors looks at British artist Damien Hirst work of art 'The Incomplete Truth', during the 13th Yalta Annual Meeting entitled 'The World, Europe and Ukraine: storms of changes', organised by the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation at the Mystetsky Arsenal Art Center in Kiev AP * 22/30 16 September 2016 Tracey Emin's "My Bed" is exhibited at the Tate Liverpool as part of the exhibition Tracey Emin And William Blake In Focus, which highlights surprising links between the two artists Getty Images * 23/30 15 September 2016 Musician Dave Grohl (L) joins musician Tom Morello of Prophets of Rage onstage at the Forum in Inglewood, California Getty Images * 24/30 14 September 2016 Model feebee poses as part of art installation "Narcissism : Dazzle room" made by artist Shigeki Matsuyama at rooms33 fashion and design exhibition in Tokyo. Matsuyama's installation features a strong contrast of black and white, which he learned from dazzle camouflage used mainly in World War I AP * 25/30 13 September 2016 Visitors look at artworks by Chinese painter Cui Ruzhuo during the exhibition 'Glossiness of Uncarved Jade' held at the exhibition hall 'Manezh' in St. Petersburg, Russia. More than 200 paintings by the Chinese artist are presented until 25 September EPA * 26/30 12 September 2016 A visitor looks at Raphael's painting 'Extase de Sainte Cecile', 1515, from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence during the opening of a Raphael exhibition at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, Russia. The first Russian exhibition of the works of the Italian Renaissance artist Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino includes eight paintings and three drawings which come from Italy. Th exhibit opens to the public from 13 September to 11 December EPA * 27/30 11 September 2016 Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd perform during Otis Redding 75th Birthday Celebration - Rehearsals at the Macon City Auditorium in Macon, Georgia Getty Images for Otis Redding 75 * 28/30 10 September 2016 Sakari Oramo conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC Singers at the Last Night of the Proms 2016 at the Royal Albert Hall in London PA * 29/30 9 September 2016 A visitor walks past a piece entitled "Fruitcake" by Joana Vasconcelo, during the Beyond Limits selling exhibition at Chatsworth House near Bakewell REUTERS * 30/30 8 September 2016 A sculpture of a crescent standing on the 2,140 meters high mountain 'Freiheit' (German for 'freedom'), in the Alpstein region of the Appenzell alps, eastern Switzerland. The sculpture is lighted during the nights by means of solar panels. The 38-year-old Swiss artist and atheist Christian Meier set the crescent on the peak to start a debate on the meaning of religious symbols - as summit crosses - on mountains. 'Because so many peaks have crosses on them, it struck me as a great idea to put up an equally absurd contrast'. 'Naturally I wanted to provoke in a fun way. But it goes beyond that. The actions of an artist should be food for thought, both visually and in content' EPA "Korean seemed like a strangely obvious choice, because it is a language which practically nobody in this country studies or knows." The Vegetarian was her first success attempt to translate a Korean work into English after she was commissioned on Twitter. She has since gone on to publish several other Korean texts and recently founded a not-for-profit publishing house dedicated to Asian and African literature. * More about: * Man Booker International Prize * South Korea * Han Kang * Deborah Smith [reuse.png] Reuse content Comments [i100.png] Most Popular Video Sponsored Features * Follow us: * * * User Policies * Privacy Policy * Cookie Policy * Code of Conduct * Complaint Form * Contact Us * Contributors * All Topics * Archive * Newsletters * Jobs * Subscriptions * Advertising Guide * Syndication * Evening Standard * Novaya Gazeta * Install our Apps (BUTTON) Close We've noticed that you are using an ad blocker. Advertising helps fund our journalism and keep it truly independent. It helps to build our international editorial team, from war correspondents to investigative reporters, commentators to critics. 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