Disecție

Disecție by Han Kang looks at the mass killings in Gwangju. It explores the harm they left behind. In May 1980, South Korean troops killed civilians who were protesting. The dead included women and children. Reports still differ on how many died. The army gave a death toll of fewer than 200. The foreign press reported more than 1,000 deaths. The novel turns from these counts to lives changed by loss.

This novel draws on history and suits readers of painful, character-led tales. Its seven chapters span 1980 to 2013, each with a distinct voice. Dong-ho is fourteen and seeks a missing friend. He tends the bodies of the unclaimed dead before his own death. His friend then speaks from a mass grave. We also hear from a book editor and a prisoner who endured torture. A young woman who faced abuse while working in a factory speaks too. Later, we hear from Dong-ho's mother and Han Kang herself. Han Kang's family sold their home to Dong-ho's parents. They left Gwangju a few months before the killings.

The book asks how people can show care yet commit murder. It traces grief, guilt, and trauma that lasts for decades. Its close, poetic style sits beside stark scenes of physical harm. The army rules under martial law, and people kill for political ends. Workers take pills so they can work without rest. A president seeks to rule for life through changes to the constitution. The linked tales mourn the dead and explore human dignity.

Han Kang was born in Gwangju in 1970. Her father is the writer Han Seung-won. She studied Korean literature at Yonsei University. She began to publish poems in 1993. Her first novel came out in 1994, after she won a Seoul Shinmun contest. She took part in a writers' programme at the University of Iowa. She has won the Yi Sang, Young Artist, and Manhae prizes. She also won the Man Booker International Prize. She teaches creative writing at the Seoul Institute of the Arts. She won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2024.

Disecție won the Malaparte Prize in 2017. That year, Amazon named it one of its best books. Several US publications did too. This edition forms part of the Musai series. Iolanda Prodan translated the book from Korean.