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In honour of South Korean author Han Kang winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, we’ve compiled a list of three of her books for you to read.

A note on Han Kang’s works — I don’t believe they’re meant to be taken entirely literally. Her books may seem strange to some, but are, ultimately, a commentary on society in general. From The Vegetarian’s dark take on humanity to The White Book’s exploration of grief, her books are poetic and a little disturbing but definitely thought-provoking.

The White Book

At first glance, The White Book is a series of seemingly random short essays or writings. But when you get into it, the book is a collection of grief-stricken writings from an unnamed narrator, all interweaving the colour white.

The chapters have subsections, all titled with white items — sugar cubes, rice raw and cooked, mourning robes, smoke, a white dog. Though seemingly random, as you read on, you realise these sections are all interconnected and all explore the nameless narrator’s grief as she grapples with the family tragedy of her older sister’s death as a baby.

The narrator remembers her sister through stories from other family members rather than her own memories — in fact, she may have never met her at all.

Despite this, her sister is never far from her thoughts as she sees her and what her life could have been every where she goes. Her writings mirror the inevitable what-ifs that often follow the death of a loved one as well as the musings on what life would be like if they were there.

If you’re in Pakistan, you can purchase the book here.

Greek Lessons

A woman has lost her voice and grapples with trying to find it again. A man is losing his vision and grapples with a bleak future. They meet in a classroom where he teaches her Greek and begin a relationship. The book, however, is less about their relationship and more about their personal lives and the way they’ve been dealing with their problems.

Greek Lessons interweaves the present and the past — both his and hers — as the pair meet and slowly connect. The woman has lost custody of her nine-year-old son and is desperate to speak again. The man reflects on a lost love and his own cowardice in leaving her. This is not a love story; it’s a story of two people who meet randomly and form a connection.

If you’re in Pakistan, you can purchase the book here.

The Vegetarian

The Vegetarian is my favourite of the three books on this list. It follows a woman and her sudden decision to stop eating meat. This decision, though personal, causes great strife in her family, who try to change her mind through methods both kind and unsavoury. We see the great changes in her life caused by this inexplicable decision spurred by a single nightmare.

Slowly, she descends into madness, brought on by her family’s attempts to ‘help’.

The Vegetarian reminds me in some ways of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka — a tale of someone trapped in their head. If I had to choose a single word to describe this it would be weird — but in a good way. There’s something unsettling about this book, but it isn’t in the way you’d think.

If you’re in Pakistan, you can purchase the book here.