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Han Kang, a middle-aged Korean woman with long dark hair, sits on a chair on a darkened stage; adjacent to her on Kang's left is the broadcaster Octavia Bright, a White woman with long brown hair sat on a similar chair. On Kang's right, also seated is translator Seh Hyun Rho, a Korean woman with long brown hair.
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Han Kang: Greek Lessons

On 10 October 2024 South Korean author Han Kang was awarded with the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature

Podcast
Reading time 1 minute read
Originally posted Wed 16 Oct 2024

In April 2023 we were lucky enough to welcome Han Kang to the Southbank Centre to celebrate the English-language launch of Greek Lessons, her powerful novel of the saving grace of language and human connection.

After publishing her first novel, Love in Yeosu, in 1995 Han Kang soon became a celebrated name in her native South Korea, winning multiple awards for her works including the Korean Fiction Award, the Yi Sang Literary Award Grand Prize. She came to global attention in 2016 when her novel The Vegetarian, originally published in 2007, won the International Booker Prize.

First published in Korea in 2011, Greek Lessons is Han Kang’s seventh novel, and the author joined writer and broadcaster Octavia Bright on our Purcell Room stage to discuss it with the aid of live translation from Seh Hyun Rho. Here, you can now enjoy this conversation event in full.

‘Han Kang writes intense, lyrical prose that is both tender and brutal’

Anna-Karim Palm, co-opted member of the Nobel Committee for Literature