Yes24 Real-Time Bestseller Rankings Sweep Positions 1 to 10
Public interest in the novels of Han Kang, the first Korean Nobel Literature Prize winner, is exploding.
Kyobo Bookstore reported on the 11th that sales of Han Kang's novels surged 451 times compared to the previous day within just 12 hours after the award announcement, causing a shortage. The increase in sales of Han Kang's novels is 294 times higher than the sales increase of last year's Nobel laureate Jon Fosse's works.
Since the award announcement, Han Kang's novels have occupied all the top 9 spots on Kyobo Bookstore's online bestseller list. Kyobo Bookstore added that the sales ranking was highest for The Vegetarian, followed by Human Acts, and We Do Not Say Goodbye.
The Vegetarian is the work that earned Han Kang the prestigious Booker Prize in the UK in 2016. Human Acts and We Do Not Say Goodbye are notable works dealing with the Gwangju Democratization Movement and the Jeju 4·3 Incident, respectively. The author received the Manhae Literature Prize in 2014 and the Malaparte Literature Prize in 2017 for Human Acts. Additionally, she won the Medici Foreign Literature Prize last year and the ?mile Guimet Asian Literature Prize this year for We Do Not Say Goodbye, and previously received the Daesan Literary Award and the Kim Man-jung Literary Award in 2022.
Analysis of readers who purchased Han Kang's works showed that people in their 30s accounted for the highest proportion at 36.8%, followed by those in their 40s (20.4%) and 20s (18.7%). By gender, women made up 67.4% of the buyers.
Yes24 also reported that all the top 10 spots on their real-time bestseller list were filled with novels by Han Kang. Sales of Human Acts increased 784 times compared to the day before the award, while The Vegetarian and We Do Not Say Goodbye increased 696 times and 3,422 times, respectively.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
