“Through his extreme narrative I felt I could question.. the difficult question of being human.”
She was the first South Korean to win the prize.
Described as “lyrical and lacerating” by chairman of the judges Boy Tonkin, the tale traces the story of an ordinary woman’s rejection of convention from three different perspectives.
It was picked unanimously by the panel of five judges, beating six other novels including The story of the Lost Child by Italian sensation Elena ferrante and A strangeness In My Mind by Turkey’s Orhan Pamuk.