For our first Book Club episode, we’re discussing The Vegetarian by Han Kang, who was the first Asian woman and first Korean writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. We couldn’t think of a better choice than this powerful and deeply feminist novel for our first pick.

The Vegetarian tells the story of Yeong-hye, an ordinary woman living in contemporary South Korea, whose decision to stop eating meat becomes a shocking act of rebellion. As her journey spirals in a surreal and unsettling way, she seeks to abandon her physical self entirely.

Described by The Booker Prize as "fraught, disturbing, and beautiful," the novel explores themes of violence, shame, desire, and the human struggle to understand others.

In this episode, we discuss the English translation, why we think Han Kang was able to win the Nobel Prize, the novel’s structure, the layered themes of human brutality, discrimination against women, and how the novel’s content reflects Korean culture including whether vegetarianism is a social taboo and the perception of mental illness, as well as the novel’s connection to broader, more universal themes of inescapable violence.

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