Compulsively readable, universally relevant and deeply resonant... It lacerates, it haunts, it dreams, it mourns... 'Human Acts' is, in equal parts, beautiful and urgent.-New York Times Book Review

Human Acts is unique in the intensity and scale of this brutality... [T]he novel details a bloody history that was deliberately forgotten and is only now being recovered.-The Nation

[Han Kang's] new novel, Human Acts, showcases the same talent for writing about corporeal horrors, this time in the context of the 1980 Gwangju uprising.-TIME Magazine

Han Kang's Human Acts speak the unspeakable. -Vanity Fair

The long wake of the killings plays out across the testimonies of survivors as well as the dead, in scenarios both gorily real and beautifully surreal.-Vulture

Human Acts is stunning. Book reviews evaluate how well a book does what it sets out to do, and so we sometimes write nice things about books that perfectly fulfill trivial aims. Otherwise, we'd always be complaining that romance novels or political thrillers fail to justify the ways of God to men. But Han Kang has an ambition as large as Milton's struggle with God: She wants to reconcile the ways of humanity to itself.-NPR.org

Engrossing... The result is torturously compelling, a relentless portrait of death and agony that never lets you look away. Han's prose-as translated by Deborah Smith-is both spare and dreamy, full of haunting images and echoing language. She mesmerizes, drawing you into the horrors of Gwangju; questioning humanity, implicating everyone... Unnerving and painfully immediate.-Los Angeles Times

Revelatory ... nothing short of breathtaking... In the end, what Han has re-created is not just an extraordinary record of human suffering during one particularly contentious period in Korean history, but also a written testament to our willingness to risk discomfort, capture, even death in order to fight for a cause or help others in times of need.-San Francisco Chronicle

But where Kang excels is in her unflinching, unsentimental descriptions of death. I am hard pressed to think of another novel that deals so vividly and convincingly with the stages of physical decay. Kang's prose does not make for easy reading, but there is something admirable about this clear-eyed rendering of the end of life.-Boston Globe

Absorbing... Han uses her talents as a storyteller of subtlety and power to bring this struggle out of the middle distance of 'history' and into the intimate space of the irreplaceable human individual.-Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Kang explores the sprawling trauma of political brutality with impressive nuance and the piercing emotional truth that comes with masterful fiction... a fiercely written, deeply upsetting, and beautifully human novel.-Kirkus Reviews

Kang is an incredible storyteller who raises questions about the purpose of humanity and the constant tension between good and evil through the heartbreaking experiences of her characters. Her poetic language shifts fluidly from different points of view, while her fearless use of raw, austere diction emulates the harsh conflicts and emotions raging throughout the plot. This jarring portrayal of the Gwangju demonstrations will keep readers gripped until the end.-Booklist (starred)

With Han Kang's The Vegetarian awarded the 2016 Man Booker International Prize, her follow-up will garner extra scrutiny. Bottom line? This new work, again seamlessly translated by Deborah Smith, who also provides an indispensable contextual introduction, is even more stupendous.-Library Journal (starred)

Pristine, expertly paced, and gut-wrenching... Human Acts grapples with the fallout of a massacre and questions what humans are willing to die for and in turn what they must live through. Kang approaches these difficult and inexorable queries with originality and fearlessness, making Human Acts a must-read for 2017.-Chicago Review of Books

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