[K-LIT REVIEW] 'Light and Thread' reveals Han Kang's hidden facets

When I heard that Nobel laureate Han Kang had put out a new book and that it was her first translated nonfiction work, I didn’t know what to expect. “Essays” was the vague idea I’d gleaned from social media, but the reality of “Light and Thread” (translated into English by Maya West, E. Yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris) turned out to be so much more. For anyone who has read Han or plans to read her in the future, this book is an unmissable companion, containing insights to her writing that only she can tell. Two years ago, the Swedish Academy awarded Han with the Nobel Prize in literature, lauding her “intense poetic prose.” The intensity is dialed back in this latest release, but Han’s signature prose is as feather-light and gentle as the name “Light and Thread” suggests. The book is divided into three sections of essays, poems and other writing that paint a holistic picture of Han: first as a novelist, then as a poet and finally as a person. “Enigmatic” is a word often used to describe Han Kang’s work. Those who have read even a single paragraph of her novel

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