TY - BOOK AU - Kang, Han, AU - Smith, Deborah TI - The vegetarian : : a novel SN - 9781803510057 AV - PL992.26 .K36C4313 2016 PY - 2023/// CY - London PB - Granta Publications Ltd KW - Women KW - Korea (South) KW - Fiction KW - Vegetarians KW - Nightmares KW - Dreams KW - Families KW - Asian literature KW - Allegories KW - Psychological fiction N2 - 'A strange, painfully tender exploration of the brutality of desire indulged and the fatality of desire ignored... Exquisite.' Eimear McBride Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people - dutiful wife and mild-mannered office worker. One day, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares, Yeong-hye decides to become a vegetarian. But in South Korea, where vegetarianism is almost unheard-of and societal mores are strictly obeyed, it is a shocking act of subversion. Yeong-hye's passive rebellion rapidly manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, from sexual sadism to attempted suicide, and in increasingly erotic and unhinged artworks, as all the while she spirals further into her fantasies... Disturbing and beautiful by turns, The Vegetarian is a revelatory novel about modern day South Korea; a tale of shame, desire and our faltering attempts to understand others ER -