SKorean author Han Kang claims Man Booker prize

LONDON (AA) – South Korean author Han Kang has claimed this year’s Man Booker International prize for the best work translated into English.

Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk had been among the nominees for the award for his 2014 novel A Strangeness in My Mind, which was translated by 27-year-old Turkish-born Londoner Ekin Oklap.

But it was Kang who will divide the £50,000 ($72,290) prize with her translator Deborah Smith for the novel The Vegetarian.

Boyd Tonkin, chairman of the judging panel, said the award was a unanimous decision.

He said: “Told in three voices, from three different perspectives, this concise, unsettling and beautifully composed story traces an ordinary woman’s rejection of all the conventions and assumptions that bind her to her home, family and society.

“In a style both lyrical and lacerating, it reveals the impact of this great refusal both on the heroine herself and on those around her. This compact, exquisite, and disturbing book will linger long in the minds, and maybe the dreams, of its readers.”

Four other titles in addition to Kang and Pamuk were nominated for this year’s prize. They included A General Theory of Oblivion by Angolan author Jose Eduardo Agualusa and Austrian Robert Seethaler's A Whole Life.

China’s Yan Lianke, who wrote The Four Books, and Italian Elena Ferrante’s The Story of the Lost Child round out the nominees.

The international award complements the annual Man Booker Prize, given to the best original English-language novel.