The Man Booker International Prize celebrates translated fiction at its finest. Now an annual prize awarded to a single novel or collection of short stories, it can truly highlight the best of translated fiction from around the world. Both the writer and the translator will be rewarded equally for their contribution, showcasing the crucial role they each play in the finished book.
The full shortlist of six titles can be found here, but in this series of articles we will look at each title in detail.
The Vegetarian
Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. The acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye, seeking a more ‘plant-like’ existence, commits a shocking act of subversion by becoming vegetarian. As her rebellion causes rifts in her marriage, Yeong-hye spirals further and further into her fantasies of abandoning her fleshly prison and becoming – impossibly, ecstatically – a tree.
Have you read The Vegetarian? You can leave a review or add the book to your group’s reading list.
Want to know more? Download our reading notes for The Vegetarian, including information about the author and translator, as well as some discussion questions about the book.
Want ideas on what to read next? We’ve created a supporting booklist with suggestions of other books that have links to the themes of The Vegetarian, including marital breakdown, vegetarianism, Korean culture and becoming one with nature.
A word from Whitegrove Library Book Club
Whitegrove Library Book Club is one of the reading groups who are shadowing the Prize this year, and are reading The Vegetarian.
“Our Book Club has been running for ten years, meeting monthly in the Parish of Warfield, near Bracknell. We currently have seventeen members (thirteen women; four men), aged from approximately 35 to 90. Our members originally come from various parts of England, Venezuela and Wales. Strong friendships have been formed and a Spanish group and quiz team have developed out of the group.”
Get involved
Join in the conversation on Twitter and Facebook using #MBI2016 and #TheVegetarian, you can also follow translator Deborah Smith on Twitter.
Keep up with all the latest news on the Man Booker International Prize website, and on Instagram.