Kyobo Bookstore "Han Kang Effect... Novel Sales Increase by 35.7% This Year"

'The Boy Is Coming' Tops Comprehensive Bestseller List
Five Works by Han Kang Included in Top 10

Kyobo Book Centre announced on the 2nd that novel sales increased by 35.7% this year compared to the previous year, thanks to the effect of novelist Han Kang's Nobel Prize in Literature win.

Kyobo Book Centre revealed this in the '2024 Book Sales and Bestseller Analysis' data released on the same day.

Han Kang's books swept the top three spots in this year's overall bestsellers. "The Boy is Coming" took first place, followed by "The Vegetarian" and "No Longer Human".

Including "White (9th)" and "I Put Dinner in the Drawer (10th)", five of the top ten bestsellers were works by Han Kang.

Expanding the range to the top 200, Han Kang's collected works published by Munhakdongne, "The Essential: Han Kang (47th)", was also included, making a total of eight Han Kang books ranked.

Kyobo Book Centre stated that Han Kang's Nobel Prize in Literature has opened a new era for literature, and sales of related fields such as poetry and essays have also increased. They also explained that new works by authors Kim Ae-ran and Jung Yoo-jung, as well as novels adapted into original works for online video streaming services (OTT), gained popularity. Kim Ae-ran's new work "One of These Is a Lie" ranked 52nd, and Jung Yoo-jung's new book "Eternal Heaven" ranked 72nd.

Kyobo Book Centre added that the readership aged 50 and above increased the most after Han Kang's Nobel Prize win.

Excluding Han Kang's novels, Morgan Housel's "The Laws of Permanence (4th)" and Kang Yong-su's "Schopenhauer to Read at Forty (5th)" were among the top bestsellers.

Kyobo Book Centre explained that with the diversification of book introduction channels through YouTube and social networking services (SNS), readers' interests have also diversified, resulting in books from various fields receiving balanced love from readers.