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Korean Novel Makes NYT's 'Best Books of 2016' List

The International Man Booker Prize-winning novel "The Vegetarian" by Han Kang was chosen as one of the 10 best books of the year by the New York Times.

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"The Vegetarian" has been sold in 34 countries and was published in the U.S. in January.

The paper chooses five fiction and five non-fiction books every year.

The novel centers on an ordinary housewife who decides to become a vegetarian after a terrifying dream, with unforeseen consequences for those around her.

"Han's treatments of submission and subversion find form in the parable, as the housewife's self-abnegation turns increasingly severe and surreal", the daily said.

"This spare and elegant translation renders the original Korean in pointed and vivid English, preserving Han's penetrating exploration of whether true innocence is possible in a vicious and bloody world".

"The Vegetarian" was also chosen as a book of the year by Time magazine, Entertainment Weekly and the Guardian of the U.K.

Some 650,000 copies have been printed in Korea so far.

"The Vegetarian" was made into the movie "Vegetarian" in 2010.

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