The White Book

Kang Han2017
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From the winner of the Man Booker International Prize for The Vegetarian comes a stunning meditation on the colour white; about light, about death and about ritualFrom the winner of the Man Booker International Prize for The VegetarianBoth the most autobiographical and the most experimental book to date from South Korean master Han Kang. Written while on a writer's residency in Warsaw, a city palpably scarred by the violence of the past, the narrator finds herself haunted by the story of her older sister, who died a mere two hours after birth. A fragmented exploration of white things - the swaddling bands that were also her shroud, the breast milk she did not live to drink, the blank page on which the narrator herself attempts to reconstruct the story - unfold in a powerfully poetic distillation. As she walks the unfamiliar, snow-streaked streets, lined by buildings formerly obliterated in the Second World War, their identities blur and overlap as the narrator wonders, 'Can I give this life to you?'. The White Book is a book like no other. It is a meditation on a colour, on the tenacity and fragility of the human spirit, and our attempts to graft new life from the ashes of destruction.(photographs in print edition only)
Photo of cha
chaJan 26, 2026
3 stars
Photo of p.
p.Dec 12, 2025
3.5 stars
Photo of Lilo
LiloJan 8, 2025
2.5 stars
Conceptual
Unique
Photo of Claudine
ClaudineJan 5, 2025
4.5 stars
Magnetic
Intense
Meaningful
Profound
Photo of 𓆨
𓆨Mar 14, 2024
4 stars
Photo of moz
mozJan 7, 2024
4 stars
Photo of Valentina
ValentinaMar 25, 2023
4.5 stars
Complex
Intelligent
Surreal
Deep
Enigmatic
Heartbreaking
Intense
Pure
Depressing
Photo of Beau
BeauFeb 21, 2023
5 stars
Photo of C
COct 10, 2021
3.5 stars
Photo of Kat
KatJan 30, 2023
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