--- title: Review: Han Kang's Human Acts description: The book centers on the 1980 Gwangju uprising canonical: https://time.com/4632672/south-korea-han-kang-human-acts/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-12T10:58:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:41:25.539Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Review: South Korea’s Han Kang Returns to Bodily Horrors in 'Human Acts' og:description: The book centers on the 1980 Gwangju uprising og:url: https://time.com/4632672/south-korea-han-kang-human-acts/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd300671066a4fc02/6988b5518fd2ee57263555f2/humanacts.jpg?branch=production&width=1120&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1120 og:image:height: 630 og:image:alt: humanacts og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Review: South Korea’s Han Kang Returns to Bodily Horrors in 'Human Acts' twitter:description: The book centers on the 1980 Gwangju uprising twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd300671066a4fc02/6988b5518fd2ee57263555f2/humanacts.jpg?branch=production&width=1120&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Review: South Korea’s Han Kang Returns to Bodily Horrors in _Human Acts_ > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jan 12, 2017 10:58 AM UTC  Hogarth by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jan 12, 2017 10:58 AM UTC South Korean author [Han Kang](http://themanbookerprize.com/international/backlist/2016) broke out in the U.S. last year with the Man Booker International Prize-winning novel [_The Vegetarian_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1101906111/?tag=timecom-20), a transfixing book about the unexpected consequences of a woman’s decision to forgo meat. Her new novel, [_Human Acts_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1101906723/?tag=timecom-20), showcases the same talent for writing about corporeal horrors, this time in the context of the 1980 Gwangju uprising, when the military killed hundreds of people protesting martial law. The book follows a handful of victims and survivors, from a boy keeping vigil over corpses to a woman who undergoes barbaric torture. Han deftly outlines the anatomy of violence, as when a character’s cheek is struck so hard that “the capillaries laced over her right cheekbone burst.” Wounds form scars, and over decades, the survivors bear reminders of their pain–and of the lives cut down beside them. These political invasions become ultra-personal: “I ended up despising my own body,” one character explains, “the very physical stuff of my self.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4632672/south-korea-han-kang-human-acts/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4632672/south-korea-han-kang-human-acts/"},"headline":"Review: South Korea’s Han Kang Returns to Bodily Horrors in Human Acts","datePublished":"2017-01-12T10:58:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:41:25.539Z","description":"The book centers on the 1980 Gwangju uprising","url":"https://time.com/4632672/south-korea-han-kang-human-acts/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd300671066a4fc02/6988b5518fd2ee57263555f2/humanacts.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd300671066a4fc02/6988b5518fd2ee57263555f2/humanacts.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"humanacts","caption":"","creditText":"Hogarth","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4632672/south-korea-han-kang-human-acts/","name":"Review: South Korea’s Han Kang Returns to Bodily Horrors in Human Acts"}}]}] ```