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The 45-year-old Han had been short-listed for the prize for
fiction in translation to English along with Italian writer
Elena Ferrante, Angola's Jose Eduardo Agualusa, Chinese author
Yan Lianke, Turkey's Orhan Pamuk and Austrian Robert Seethaler.
"This compact, exquisite and disturbing book will linger long in
the minds, and maybe the dreams, of its readers," Boyd Tonkin,
chairman of the 2016 judging panel, was cited by the foundation
as saying.
The novel was translated by Deborah Smith, a 28-year-old Briton
who only began learning Korean when she was 21.
Han and Smith will split the 50,000 pound ($72,000) prize
equally, according to the Booker Foundation, which administers
the prize as well as the original Man Booker Prize for works in
English and published in the United Kingdom, a prestigious award
that typically leads to a surge in sales for its winner.
In "The Vegetarian", after struggling with gruesome recurring
nightmares, Yeong-hye, a dutiful wife, rebels against societal
norms, forsaking meat and stirring concern among her family that
she is mentally ill.
Han, who was born in the South Korean city of Gwangju, teaches
creative writing at the Seoul Institute of the Arts. "The
Vegetarian" is her first novel translated into English.
The Man Booker International Prize was previously awarded every
two years for an author's overall contribution to global
fiction, but beginning with this year's prize it is awarded
annually for a single work of fiction translated into English
and published in the United Kingdom.
(Editing by Tony Munroe and Michael Perry)
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