---
product_id: 38710551
title: "Human Acts: A Novel"
price: "$646"
currency: MXN
in_stock: false
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.mx/products/38710551-human-acts-a-novel
store_origin: MX
region: Mexico
---

# Human Acts: A Novel

**Price:** $646
**Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock

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- **What is this?** Human Acts: A Novel
- **How much does it cost?** $646 with free shipping
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## Description

desertcart.com: Human Acts: A Novel: 9781101906729: Kang, Han: Books

Review: Disturbing in a way only reality can be. - The story is superbly narrated in a very different innovative way. Literary speaking it is beautiful. It is worth reading even just to indulge in the wonderful use of language and the devices of its prose, but it is so much more. It is a testimony, a lament, a warning and a chant filled with pain. It allows hope too, the victims are so human, so real, it becomes a testament to what it means to be human. Capable of the cruelest acts and capable of unending love, courage and inner strength. A must read.
Review: Can a trauma book be wonderful? Fills a void I wasn’t aware of…. - I understand why this novel would win a Nobel. The 1980 Gwangju Massacre was made vivid and real, and there is a universal theme of the after effects of trauma and torture that is so well presented. But I just want to point out a small quirk of the British translator—the repeated image of the MonAMI ballpoint pen. Deborah Smith calls the ballpoint pen a Biro. No one in Korea calls a ballpoint pen a biro. American English is the standard, and in fact a ballpoint pen is called a ballpen (in a Korean accent). Also a yogurt pot was consumed early on as a snack, but there was no yogurt in the entire country in 1980. The character consumed a liquid Yakult, the peachy colored beverage with the green foil lid in that quirky shaped plastic container. These details are petty, but the Britishisms make it one step more exotic/British/translated than it needs to be.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #314,630 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #35 in Cultural Heritage Fiction #147 in Psychological Fiction (Books) #544 in Literary Fiction (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars (3,155) |
| Dimensions  | 5.96 x 0.85 x 8.53 inches |
| ISBN-10  | 1101906723 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-1101906729 |
| Item Weight  | 13.1 ounces |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 224 pages |
| Publication date  | January 17, 2017 |
| Publisher  | Hogarth |

## Images

![Human Acts: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/617OrryJQFL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Disturbing in a way only reality can be.
*by C***A on December 31, 2024*

The story is superbly narrated in a very different innovative way. Literary speaking it is beautiful. It is worth reading even just to indulge in the wonderful use of language and the devices of its prose, but it is so much more. It is a testimony, a lament, a warning and a chant filled with pain. It allows hope too, the victims are so human, so real, it becomes a testament to what it means to be human. Capable of the cruelest acts and capable of unending love, courage and inner strength. A must read.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Can a trauma book be wonderful? Fills a void I wasn’t aware of….
*by T***Y on March 1, 2025*

I understand why this novel would win a Nobel. The 1980 Gwangju Massacre was made vivid and real, and there is a universal theme of the after effects of trauma and torture that is so well presented. But I just want to point out a small quirk of the British translator—the repeated image of the MonAMI ballpoint pen. Deborah Smith calls the ballpoint pen a Biro. No one in Korea calls a ballpoint pen a biro. American English is the standard, and in fact a ballpoint pen is called a ballpen (in a Korean accent). Also a yogurt pot was consumed early on as a snack, but there was no yogurt in the entire country in 1980. The character consumed a liquid Yakult, the peachy colored beverage with the green foil lid in that quirky shaped plastic container. These details are petty, but the Britishisms make it one step more exotic/British/translated than it needs to be.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Beautiful and brutal
*by J***N on April 5, 2017*

Dong-ho is only 15 years old when he's violently killed during the 1980 Gwangju Uprising in South Korea. In a series of interconnected stories, Han Kang tells the story of Dong-ho and the people around him whose lives were taken or forever changed. If you've read Anthony Marra's The Tsar of Love and Techno, you'll recognize Kang's approach: while each story is distinct, together they unravel a loosely connected narrative. There's such immense, unflinching brutality in these page. This is a book about oppression, torture, violence, cruelty, trauma and death, and Kang isn't in the business of sugarcoating any of it. It's upsetting to confront the reality that this is all part of humanity—and has been all along. Kang reminds us that we're all bodies and those bodies can be destroyed in an instant, without a second thought. And yet there's also beauty in these pages. Because humanity is more than just its worst parts. And those bodies are more than just flesh and blood. Kang is an exceptional writer with prose that flow like poetry, and some of the stories in Human Acts are deeply affecting. That said, this book presumes a knowledge of recent South Korean history that I just don't have, so I think some it didn't resonate with me as much as it could have. This, of course, is not Kang's fault, however I rate books based in part on my subjective enjoyment of them so I feel compelled to reflect that in my rating. Some of the stories were 5-stars reads for me, others more like 3 stars, so I'm rating this in between.

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*Product available on Desertcart Mexico*
*Store origin: MX*
*Last updated: 2026-03-05*