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First woman winner of Man Asian Literary Prize

01.01.70 | Charlotte Williams

South Korean novelist Kyung-sook Shin has won the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize, becoming the first woman, and the first South Korean, to scoop the $30,000 (£19,000) prize.

Kyung-sook Shin was awarded the prize for her novel Please Look After Mom, published in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, about a family's search for their mother after she goes missing one afternoon amid the crowds of the Seoul Station subway. The novel's translator Chi-Young Kim also won $5,000.

Razia Iqbal, chair of the judges, said: "Please Look After Mom is an incredibly moving portrait of what it means to be a mother, but also of the tradition and modernity of the family in South Korea. The novel is a sensitive exploration of the inner life of the family with a very dynamic narrative structure. The story is surprising in its complexity yet has a beating heart at the centre of it."

Nominations for the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize will open at the end of May.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo credit: Johnny Gi

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