SEOUL, April 19 (AJP) -South Korean author Han Kang, the country’s first Nobel laureate in literature, is not just a literary heavyweight but the defining commercial force in South Korea’s book market over the past decade with her bestsellers "The Vegetarian" and "Human Acts", data showed.
According to data released Sunday by Kyobo Book Centre ahead of World Book and Copyright Day on April 23, the two novels ranked first and second, respectively, in cumulative sales between April 17, 2016, and April 16, 2026, based on combined online and offline figures.
Originally published in 2007, "The Vegetarian" gained global recognition after Han became the first Korean writer to win the Man Booker International Prize in 2016. The win triggered a surge in domestic readership, with the novel topping weekly bestseller charts for 12 consecutive weeks and becoming the best-selling book of that year.
Nearly a decade later, Han’s readership saw a renewed surge following her receipt of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2024 — the first for a Korean author. This second wave was led by "Human Acts", her 2014 novel centered on the Gwangju Uprising, which ranked as the country’s annual bestseller in both 2024 and 2025.
A Kyobo official noted that while "The Vegetarian" leads in cumulative sales due to its earlier post-Booker boost, "Human Acts" has outpaced it in more recent years.
Han’s presence extended further down the list. Her 2021 novel "We Do Not Part", which deals with the Jeju 4·3 Incident, ranked eighth over the decade, supported by major international recognition including France’s Prix Médicis étranger in 2023 and the U.S. National Book Critics Circle Award this year.
Of the top 10 bestsellers, six were Korean novels, underscoring sustained domestic demand for locally grounded fiction.
Other titles in the ranking include Kim Ho-yeon’s "The Uncanny Convenience Store", Lee Mi-ye’s "DallerGut Dream Department Store", and Yang Gui-ja’s "Contradiction", which placed fifth through seventh.
Nonfiction titles also featured prominently. The self-help book "Say No’s Teachings" ranked third, followed by Lee Ki-joo’s essay collection "The Temperature of Language" in fourth. Kim Soo-hyun’s "I Decided to Live as Me" came in ninth, while "Winnie-the-Pooh: Happy Things Happen Every Day" rounded out the top 10.
Meanwhile, overall reading habits in South Korea continue to decline. According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s national reading survey, the proportion of adults who read at least one general book per year — excluding textbooks, exam materials, magazines and comics — fell from 67.4 percent in 2015 to 38.5 percent last year.
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