The Vegetarian

Bizarre and mesmerising, this slim novel from the Nobel Prize-winning author centres on a subversive act of vegetarianism in South Korea. When Yeong-hye makes the dietary change, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares, her marriage is destabilised, her husband turning to acts of sexual sadism. Attempted suicide and hospitalisation follow, as Yeong-hye falls deeper into fantasies of abandoning her fleshly prison.