With the news that writer Han Kang (53) became the first Korean to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, the entire country was excited by the ‘Han River craze’. As Han Kang’s works become in short supply and it becomes difficult to secure quantities through online bookstores, books by Han Kang with ‘higher prices’ are being posted on second-hand trading sites.
On the 12th, a post was posted on the second-hand trading platform ‘Carrot’, selling an old edition of Han Kang’s book ‘The Vegetarian’ for 120,000 won. Currently, Vegetarian is sold for 13,500 won at online bookstores.
On another second-hand trading platform, ‘Junggonara’, you can find an article stating that the first edition of Han Kang’s book ‘My Woman’s Fruit’ is being sold for 200,000 won, and ‘A Song to Sing Calmly’ is for 190,000 won. A Song to Sing Calmly is a collection of prose published by Han Kang in 2007, and is sold for 11,000 won at online bookstores.
Books priced at exorbitant prices are not being traded, but books priced in the 20,000 won range are being traded one after another.
The reason why such ‘extra money transactions’ take place is because it is unknown when bookstores will be able to receive author Han Kang’s books. Most of the stock of author Han Kang’s books ran out on the 10th when the Nobel Prize winner in Literature was announced, and some of the remaining stock was also sold out early on the morning of the 11th. Representative works such as ‘The Vegetarian’ and ‘Here Comes the Boy’ have requested reprints from publishers.
As book orders poured in, the online websites of large bookstores such as Kyobo Bookstore and YES24 were at one point paralyzed and confused. In some offline bookstores, even before the doors opened, there was an ‘open run’ procession to purchase Han Kang’s works. By 10 a.m., bookstores selling Han Kang’s works were empty.
Han Kang received the Booker Prize for his novel ‘To the Vegetarian’ in 2016, Italy’s Malaparte Literary Award for ‘Here Comes a Boy’ in 2017, and France’s Medici Foreign Literature Prize for ‘No Goodbye’ in 2023. He is also the winner of the Ho-Am Award in May this year.
[서울=뉴시스]
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