Few literary books this year are as highly anticipated as Greek Lessons, the latest novel by Han Kang to be translated into English. After Kang's Booker Prize-winning novel The Vegetarian and the follow-up novels Human Acts and The White Book, Kang has carved out an international reputation for doing unsettling, transgressive work that's as unpredictable as it is confrontational.
Greek Lessons will feel like a departure from Kang's previous English-translated novels. It's an intimate and vulnerable portrayal of two lonely, middle-aged characters who can't help but gravitate toward each other. The reading experience is like that of watching a quiet indie film that tugs little by little at your heartstrings until you're rendered speechless with both sadness and hope by the final pages.
