Human Acts Winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature

Han Kang brilliantly writes about the Gwangju uprising in 1980, the brutal deaths and the influence it had on the people touched by it. The way she conveyed the shock, the trauma of the people witnessing the massacre, made it more personal than an objective view of what happened. The senseless death of a boy, the torture of the prisoners and the fact this all happened not long ago, shocked me enough that I will carry this story with me long after I finished reading.

Before i started this book i was very hesitant. Historical books aren’t my cup of tea. But this book….THIS BOOK OH MY GOD. Once i started it I couldn’t put it down. Han Kang exceeds my expectations each time with her books. I absolutely can’t relate to the characters. But reading it, i felt what they went through. It was soul touching and really questions us as humans. It’s mellow and tender and yet so much heaviness. It’s almost as if it was crushing your heart but you liked every moment of it.

Wonderful book. Not the first book that I read from Han Kang, but definitely my fav so far. It is a heavy book, weights on conscience. It's a look back at 1980's Gwangju uprising. I am very much drawn to the different narrative, the prose style (a wonderful translation in English), and the depth it delved into. The book has also a dooming gloomy color. The interpretation of colours are very well perceived in the book. As I read, I could feel the blue, the moon light color and so on. Interestingly, she has a book entitled White. A good book too! Right now the world is also swirling with uprising and it is healing yet painful to read this powerful book. Korea is a country that bears so much, yet managed to reflect, and give way to the light and future.

The story definitely packs a punch and is super impactful- as any violation of human rights should be. The stories told are all horrific, the description of corpses, the description of torture, of what it took for people to survive and what it did to the family members of those who were murdered. It's moving and terrifying and really makes you feel for every character who gets to tell their story. The writing fits the story, it's flowery but in a kinda hard to read way. It's not bad or anything, it just takes a while to read, which is hard to describe. However I didn't really enjoy the way the story is told- the second person narration somehow distanced me from the story and the abrupt changes between the characters put me off as well, but I know why it was written this way. None of these people got a proper ending or a comfortable glide into another part of their life, so it makes sense that the chapters don't comfortably lead you into the story and then out of it again. Overall it's definitely a book worth reading and many stories worth being told, I just wish it had never been necessary to tell this in the first place.