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The Korea Times

After having lived a little more
When I stand at the edge of death
Will I be able to think
That I truly held life tight (through writing).
So begins “After Having Lived a Little More”, a contemplative two-page essay by Han Kang that drifts between lyrical poetry and prose.
This brief meditation on the act of writing graces the final pages of the South Korean author’s latest book, Light and Thread, her first publication since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in October 2024.
Light and Thread gathers 12 essays and poems – some previously published, others unveiled for the first time – paired with black-and-white photographs captured by Han herself. The 172-page volume draws its title from the writer’s Nobel Prize lecture that she delivered on December 7 at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, and includes its full text.
It also includes the text of her Nobel Prize banquet address, “In the Darkest Night”, that she delivered on December 10.

In the speech, she describes writing as a worthwhile “trade-off” – an exchange between her personal life and the way it allows her to “delve into, and dwell in, the questions I feel are imperative and urgent”.
These questions have taken many forms throughout her three-decade career, such as: can the past help the present? Can the dead save the living? Why is the world so violent and painful – and yet, how can it be so beautiful? What does it mean to belong to the species called human? And to what degree must we love to remain human to the end?
The culmination of these questions has resulted in masterpieces including The Vegetarian, Human Acts and We Do Not Part.
Beyond such sweeping literary concerns, however, Light and Thread also paints a far more intimate portrait of the novelist, most notably through her three previously unpublished essays: “North-Facing Garden”, “Garden Diary” and “After Having Lived a Little More”.
In 2019, Han bought her first home – a single-storey house tucked away in a quiet pedestrian alley in the Seochon neighbourhood of central Seoul. With a tiny yard, it is a place she calls “an introverted house”.
She decided to transform a corner of the yard into a modest garden – a north-facing one, at that. Because the space received no direct sunlight, she had to use eight tabletop mirrors to catch and reflect light onto her plants: lilac, August lily, maple and snowball tree.
Since she had to reposition the mirrors every 15 minutes or so on sunny days, her perception of the sun began to change while it was up.
In her essay “North-Facing Garden”, she writes: “In the residential complexes where I had lived before, sunlight was like a guest who made incomplete visits again and again” – slipping in awkwardly through windows, draping itself clumsily across a corner of a room, then vanishing once more behind the unyielding concrete walls.
But here, in her north-facing garden, she was able to trace and be mindful of its every movement.
“On days when I gave light to the trees, I had to spend hours in a rush to keep pace with the sun’s motion … So I came to feel, with my body, the speed at which the Earth spins.”
Such tender and observant reflections, born from caring for her small plot of land, offer a quiet current of Han’s thoughts beyond the confines of her writing desk.

It was while tending the garden, on April 26, 2021, that she completed her novel We Do Not Part, a project that had taken her seven years. She remembers slipping a USB flash drive containing the finished manuscript into the pocket of her jeans and walking the entire evening with it.
On the very last page of Light and Thread appears a small photograph. It features a handwritten, dust-gathered poem Han wrote as an eight-year-old, an accidental discovery she referenced during her Nobel lecture:
Where is love? It is inside my thump-thumping beating chest.
What is love? It is the gold thread connecting between our hearts.
Read the full story at The Korea Times.


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New Han Kang book Light and Thread reveals the Nobel Prize winner beyond her writing desk

Han Kang, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2024, is the author of a number of acclaimed books including The Vegetarian, Human Acts and We Do Not Part. Photo: AFP

Kang delivers her Nobel Prize lecture at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm on December 7, 2024. Photo: Instagram/ltikorea_official

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The cover of Nancy Kwan’s memoir. Photo: AP

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A social media post from Penguin Press heralds the coming of Thomas Pynchon’s new novel, Shadow Ticket. Photo: Instagram/penguinpress

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Books

Consisting of 12 essays and poems, Light and Thread is Han’s first book since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in October 2024


Consisting of 12 essays and poems, Light and Thread is Han’s first book since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in October 2024.


New Han Kang book Light and Thread reveals the Nobel Prize winner beyond her writing desk

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Consisting of 12 essays and poems, Light and Thread is Han’s first book since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in October 2024

Consisting of 12 essays and poems, Light and Thread is Han’s first book since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in October 2024