Han Kang Novels Remain Strong in the New Year... "Human Acts" Continues as Bestseller No. 1

Han Kang's books continue to dominate the top ranks of bestseller lists into the New Year of 2025. Typically, self-help books are widely read at the beginning of a new year as people set fresh resolutions, but this year, the Han Kang phenomenon has pushed self-help titles down the bestseller rankings.

According to the bestseller list for the first week of January released by Kyobo Bookstore on January 10, Han Kang's novel "Human Acts" has held the number one spot for ten consecutive weeks. Her other novels, "The Vegetarian" and "I Do Not Bid Farewell," followed closely behind.

Online bookstore Yes24 also reported that Han Kang's "Human Acts" has topped its bestseller list for two consecutive weeks since the start of the New Year. As with Kyobo Bookstore, "The Vegetarian" and "I Do Not Bid Farewell" ranked second and third, respectively.

Self-help books usually perform strongly at the start of the year. In the first week of January last year, five to six self-help books were included in Kyobo Bookstore's top ten bestsellers. However, this year, "Trend Korea 2025" was the only self-help book to make it into the top ten, coming in at fifth place.

Seven literary works were included in the top ten. Of these, five were poems or novels by Han Kang. Yang Gui-ja's novel "Contradiction" ranked seventh, and Jung Dae-geon's novel "Rapids" came in at tenth place.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.