Human Acts

About this book

Gwangju, South Korea, 1980. In the wake of a viciously suppressed student uprising, a boy searches for his friend's corpse, a consciousness searches for its abandoned body, and a brutalised country searches for a voice. In a sequence of interconnected chapters the victims and the bereaved encounter censorship, denial, forgiveness and the echoing agony of the original trauma. Human Acts is a universal book, utterly modern and profoundly timeless. Already a controversial bestseller and award-winning book in Korea, it confirms Han Kang as a writer of immense importance. Review Human Acts is a stunning piece of work. The language is poetic, immediate, and brutal. Han Kang has again proved herself to be a deft artist of storytelling and imagery -- Jess Richards, author ― Snake Ropes An important and necessary book... a devastating and vital a work of literature -- Lucy Scholes ― National A conversation of which we rarely hear both sides: the living talking to the dead, and the dead speaking back ― Sunday Telegraph ***** This ghostly narrative is elliptical and self-conscious about the difficulty of accounting for the legacy of state violence... poignant -- Anthony Cummins ― Observer Published On: 2016-11-06 [Han Kang's] way of telling about the event of a 10-day insurgency on Gwangju, South Korea in 1980 and its psychological, spiritual and political aftermath opened my eyes to the cruelty and viciousness perpetrated on the youth of that city. Her writing is spare and yet clotted with emotion -- Susie Orbach, Best Books of 2016 ― Guardian Published On: 2016-11-26 Han Kang's Human Acts is piercing: an exquisite, painful and deeply courageous account of the 1980 Gwangju massacre -- Philippe Sands, Best Books of 2016 ― Guardian Published On: 2016-11-26 Powerful and disturbing... lyrical and chilling ― Mail on Sunday Published On: 2016-11-27 Powerful -- David Hebblethwaite ― Shiny New Books blog Published On: 2016-12-10 [Han Kang's] way of telling about the events of a 10-day insurgency in Gwangju, South Korea in 1980 and its psychological, spiritual and political aftermath opened my eyes to the cruelty and viciousness perpetrated on the youth of that city. Her writing is spare and yet clotted with emotion -- Susie Orbach, Best Books of 2016 ― Guardian Published On: 2016-11-26 Han Kang's Human Acts is no less piercing: an exquisite, painful and deeply courageous account of the 1980 Gwangju massacre -- Philippe Sands, Best Books of 2016 ― Guardian Published On: 2016-11-27 An extraordinary novel about politics and torture, about the way we memorialize past wrongs. Deborah Smith's translation is typically lucid and readable -- Alex Preston, Best Books of 2016 ― Observer Published On: 2016-12-04 Beautiful and brutal... A fearless examination of the state of humanity and the diagnosis isn't good. This is the pitiless kind of novel that burrows into its reader -- Lisa McInerney ― Irish Times Published On: 2016-12-03 Though there's violence and bloodshed on a large scale in Han's depiction of the Gwangju Uprising, it is the small human movements that I found most vivid. That contrast helped to create the strongest experience of all the books I read this year -- David Hebblethwaite ― David's Book World Published On: 2016-12-19 Raw and beautiful, Han's prose was as contrary as the human acts she described ― New Internationalist Published On: 2017-01-01 [Human Acts] unblinkingly explores the aftermath of one of the darkest moments in South Korean history... It's written with a clear-eyed exactness that is at times horrifying... Ultimately, this is a harrowing novel that deftly examines human cruelty -- Ruchira Sharma ― Independent Published On: 2017-05-16 [A] remarkable novel... A technical and emotional triumph ― Daily Telegraph Published On: 2017-09-29 Han Kang's Human Acts, translated by Deborah Smith, gutted me. The language finds ways to dig in and hold you even as you want to turn from the horror depicted -- Maaza Mengiste ― Guardian Brilliant... Incredibly moving -- Lisa McInerney