Han Kang wins Prix Medicis in foreign language category with ‘I Do Not Bid Farewell’

  Author Han Kang’s novel “I Do Not Bid Farewell” won the prestigious Prix Medicis award, according to the French literary prize on Thursday.

She was shortlisted for the award’s foreign-language category in October. Her recent win marks the first time that a Korean author has won this award.    Han was nominated once before for Prix Medicis, in 2017, with “Greek Lessons” (2011). 

  Prix Medicis is one of France’s four most prestigious literary awards that was founded in 1958.   

  Han’s “I Do Not Bid Farewell” was published under Munhakdongne Publishing in 2021 and was subsequently translated into French by Choi Kyung-ran and Pierre Bisiou. The French edition was published under the publishing house Grasset in September as “Impossibles Adieux.”   

Korean cover of Han Kang’s novel “I Do Not Bid Farewell” [MUNHAKDONGNAE]

  “I Do Not Bid Farewell” is about love, life, grief and loss surrounding the 1948 Jeju April 3 Uprising, told in the voices of three women.   The same book narrowly lost another famed French literary award, Prix Femina, on Tuesday, for which it was also shortlisted.   Authors Lee Seung-woo and Hwang Sok-yong have been nominated for the Prix Femina in the past.     

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]