Han Kang won the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) prize for fiction with "We Do Not Part," further cementing her place among literature's most vital voices following her 2024 winning of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The celebrated South Korean author was named the winner of the prestigious American literary award for the 2021 novel published in English translation in 2024, at the NBCC's annual awards ceremony held in New York on Thursday night (U.S. time).
Heather Scott Partington, the NBCC's fiction committee chair, described the book as "a work of blinding melancholy, bleak weather, and murmuring syntax," while onstage before presenting the award.
"A subtly rendered sketch of trauma in the wake of the Jeju massacre -- a rumination on creation and truth amidst loss. This artful novel lingers like an atmospheric, arresting dream," she added.
Han Kang was not able to attend the event. In her stead, David Ebershoff, vice president and editor-in-chief of Hogarth and executive editor of Random House, accepted the award and read her acceptance speech on her behalf.
