Cheong is content meandering through life it seems as if his only goal is to live a conventional, unremarkable life. He explains that when he first met her, he was not even attracted to her and that suited him just fine. Cheong considers his wife to be 'completely unremarkable in any way'. The second section is narrated in third person focusing on Yeong-hye's brother-in-law and the third section remains in third-person but focuses on her sister, In-hye, while sporadically speaking in the present tense. The first section is narrated by Yeong-hye's husband, Mr. The story is told in three parts: 'The Vegetarian', 'Mongolian Mark', and 'Flaming Trees'. This abstention leads her to become distanced from her family and from society. The Vegetarian tells the story of Yeong-hye, a home-maker who, one day, suddenly decides to stop eating meat after a series of dreams involving images of animal slaughter. In June 2016, Time included the book in its list of best books of 2016. Prior to it winning the prize, The Vegetarian had sold close to 20,000 copies in the nine years since its first publication. It is considered as Korean translated literature's biggest win since Kyung-Sook Shin's Please Look After Mom won the closing Man Asian Literary Prize in 2012. The Vegetarian thus became the first recipient of the award after its reconfiguration in 2015, prior to which it was awarded to an author's body of work rather than a single novel. In May 2016, it won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize. The translation was conducted by the British translator Deborah Smith, and was published in January 2015 in the UK and February 2016 in the US, after which it received international critical acclaim, with critics praising Han's writing style and Smith's translation.

The Vegetarian is Han's second book to be translated into English. It has been translated into at least thirteen languages, including English, French, Spanish, and Chinese. 'Mongolian Mark', the second and central part of the novel was awarded the prestigious Yi Sang Literary Prize. Published on 30 October 2007 in South Korea by Changbi Publishers, The Vegetarian was received as 'very extreme and bizarre' by the South Korean audience. Based on Han's 1997 short story 'The Fruit of My Woman', The Vegetarian is set in modern-day Seoul and tells the story of Yeong-hye, a part-time graphic artist and home-maker, whose decision to stop eating meat after a bloody, nightmarish dream about human cruelty leads to devastating consequences in her personal and familial life. The Vegetarian ( Korean: 채식주의자 RR: Chaesikjuuija) is a South Korean three-part novel written by Han Kang and first published in 2007.

Deborah smith the vegetarian