Man Booker winner Han Kang’s new book talks about all things white, ‘uncrushable’

In this photo provided by her publisher Nanda, South Korean author Han Kang speaks during a press briefing about her new book “The Elegy of Whiteness” in a cafe in the Hongdae Ward of western Seoul on May 24, 2016. (Yonhap)

SEOUL (Yonhap) — Han Kang, the winner of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize, said Tuesday her new book talks about something white that can’t be destroyed or tainted.

In a meeting with reporters in a cafe in the Hongdae Ward of western Seoul, the novelist discussed her new book, “The Elegy of Whiteness,” which she said expresses the strong resilience of human beings amidst life-long suffering.

Last week, Han captured the literary award with her novel “The Vegetarian.” Reflecting the huge public attention on the author, the venue started filling up an hour before the start of the event at 11 a.m. despite the drizzly weather. Organizers were busy fetching more tables and chairs to accommodate the swarm of reporters and cameramen.

This photo shows South Korean author Han Kang’s new book “The Elegy of Whiteness” on May 24, 2016. (Yonhap)

“I wrote the book thinking about a baby sister who died before I was born,” Han said, her small voice almost buried in the fervently clicking sounds of hundreds of cameras.

“I wanted to give it a new life, something dazzling and transparent.”

On the Booker award, Han said it felt so “unexpected” and “bizarre” to receive the award for a book that she finished 11 years ago.

“I’d already walked quite far from the book when I received the award,” she said, adding that it felt strange that the book came back to her after all those years and in a place far away from home.

“I have strenuously moved on from the question I raised 11 years ago and will continue moving forward,” she said.

Han started writing her new book in the winter of 2013. The first draft came out in 2014, and the final version was finally completed this spring after rigorous editing and rewriting.

“The book can read as a poem or a novel. It took me so long to complete it because the form is a bit strange,” the soft-spoken author said.

The 132-page novel, comprised of 65 short chapters, is “not an easy read. It will make readers take their time in absorbing the contents, having them grab a pencil to underline some words or sentences, and making them go back to a certain page,” wrote the Korean publisher Nanda in a book review.

The white color, she said, represents life and death in the Korean cultural context in which white is the color of the clothes of a newborn baby and also for a dead person.

In this photo provided by South Korean publisher Nanda, Cafe Comma, a cafe in the Hongdae Ward of western Seoul, is filled with reporters for the new conference by South Korean author Han Kang on May 24, 2016. (Yonhap)

One chapter of the book, titled “Clothes for a Newborn Baby,” reads, “Finally she gave birth alone. She cut the umbilical cord on her own. She put the clothes that she’d just made on the infant tainted in blood. Don’t die, please. She kept repeating, cuddling the small baby crying in a faint voice. Its eyelids, tightly closed shut in the beginning, magically opened an hour later. She murmured again, meeting its dark eyes. Please don’t die. Another hour passed by. The baby died. She lied on her side, holding the dead baby in her arms and endured the baby’s body turning cold. She shed tears no more.”

“That my life is peaceful doesn’t mean it will remain so forever. We have to embrace pain as an undeniable fact of our life,” she said on the question of why she writes stories full of human agony and pain.

Her new book is being translated by Deborah Smith, the translator of “The Vegetarian” and “Human Acts,” and is expected to be published around fall next year in Britain.

“I can’t wait to get back to my current work. I think I’ve told you everything I wanted to, and I will deliver the rest, if any, through my next book,” Han said.

One Comment

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