Human Acts: A Novel

**FROM HAN KANG, WINNER OF THE 2024 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
“[Han Kang’s] intense poetic prose . . . confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”—The Nobel Committee for Literature, in the citation for the Nobel Prize
The internationally bestselling author of *The Vegetarian* presents a “rare and astonishing” ( *The Observer* ) portrait of political unrest and the universal struggle for justice.**
**“Compulsively readable, universally relevant, and deeply resonant . . . in equal parts beautiful and urgent.”— *The New York Times Book Review***
**Shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award • One of the Best Books of the Year: *The Atlantic, San Francisco Chronicle,* NPR, *HuffPost, Medium, Library Journal***
Amid a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed.
The story of this tragic episode unfolds in a sequence of interconnected chapters as the victims and the bereaved encounter suppression, denial, and the echoing agony of the massacre. From Dong-ho’s best friend who meets his own fateful end; to an editor struggling against censorship; to a prisoner and a factory worker, each suffering from traumatic memories; and to Dong-ho's own grief-stricken mother; and through their collective heartbreak and acts of hope is the tale of a brutalized people in search of a voice.
An award-winning, controversial bestseller, *Human Acts* is a timeless, pointillist portrait of an historic event with reverberations still being felt today, by turns tracing the harsh reality of oppression and the resounding, extraordinary poetry of humanity.