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South Korea’s Han Sells One Million Books after Nobel Win

A visitor takes a commemorative photo after buying books by South Korean poet and novelist Han Kang near a special section for her at a bookstore in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. The letters read "Congratulations on Han Kang's the Nobel Prize award." and "Awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in literature." (AP)
A visitor takes a commemorative photo after buying books by South Korean poet and novelist Han Kang near a special section for her at a bookstore in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. The letters read "Congratulations on Han Kang's the Nobel Prize award." and "Awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in literature." (AP)
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South Korea’s Han Sells One Million Books after Nobel Win

A visitor takes a commemorative photo after buying books by South Korean poet and novelist Han Kang near a special section for her at a bookstore in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. The letters read "Congratulations on Han Kang's the Nobel Prize award." and "Awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in literature." (AP)
A visitor takes a commemorative photo after buying books by South Korean poet and novelist Han Kang near a special section for her at a bookstore in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. The letters read "Congratulations on Han Kang's the Nobel Prize award." and "Awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in literature." (AP)

More than a million copies of books by Han Kang, the first South Korean to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, have sold locally since the honor was announced, bookstores said Wednesday.

The short story writer and novelist is best known overseas for her Man Booker Prize-winning "The Vegetarian", her first novel translated into English.

The 53-year-old, who also became the first Asian woman author to win the Nobel, was chosen "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life", the Swedish Academy said last week.

Han's win has created a sensation in South Korea, with the websites of major bookstores and publishing houses crashing after it was announced, as tens of thousands rushed to order her books.

As of Wednesday morning, at least 1.06 million copies, including e-books, had been sold since last Thursday's Nobel announcement, three major bookstores and online retailers -- Kyobo, Aladin and YES24 -- told AFP.

"Han Kang's books are experiencing unprecedented sales. This is a situation we have never seen before," Kyobo spokesperson Kim Hyun-jung told AFP.

Online bookstore Aladin said Han's victory had not only led to a staggering 1,200-fold increase in the sales of her books compared with the same period last year, but dramatically boosted the sales of South Korean literature as a whole.

Since her win, "the overall sales of Korean literature increased by more than 12 times compared to the previous year", it said in a statement.

Sales of two books Han recently mentioned she was reading -- "Inventory of Losses" by Judith Schalansky and "Atlas de botanique élémentaire" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau -- had also surged, Aladin said.

Kyobo Book Center said while it does not have exact figures, Han's books had seen dramatically higher sales compared with other Nobel prize winners.

"We have been in the publishing industry for a while, but this whole situation feels very surreal even to some of us," a Kyobo employee told AFP.

South Koreans have been overjoyed by the news, with Han's alma mater, Seoul's Yonsei University, displaying banners that read: "Congratulations to the proud Yonsei alumnus, Han Kang, on winning the Nobel Prize in Literature."

In her hometown of Gwangju -- where a massacre occurred in 1980 that later inspired Han's acclaimed novel "Human Acts" -- a congratulatory banner was hung on a building fired on by a military helicopter at the time.

Local reports said some printing houses had been operating at full capacity on the weekend to meet the demand for Han's books.

"I've never been this busy since I joined the company in 2006," an Aladin employee told AFP.

"But it's all been very happy."

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50 Well-preserved Viking Age Skeletons Unearthed in Denmark

Skeletons and skulls sit in graves at an excavation site of a 10th century Viking burial ground in Aasum, Denmark, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
Skeletons and skulls sit in graves at an excavation site of a 10th century Viking burial ground in Aasum, Denmark, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
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50 Well-preserved Viking Age Skeletons Unearthed in Denmark

Skeletons and skulls sit in graves at an excavation site of a 10th century Viking burial ground in Aasum, Denmark, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
Skeletons and skulls sit in graves at an excavation site of a 10th century Viking burial ground in Aasum, Denmark, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/James Brooks)

In a village in central Denmark, archeologists made a landmark discovery that could hold important clues to the Viking era: a burial ground, containing some 50 “exceptionally well-preserved” skeletons.
“This is such an exciting find because we found these skeletons that are so very, very well preserved,” said archeologist Michael Borre Lundø, who led the six-month dig. “Normally, we would be lucky to find a few teeth in the graves, but here we have entire skeletons.”
The skeletons were preserved thanks to favorable soil chemistry, particularly chalk and high water levels, experts from Museum Odense said. The site was discovered last year during a routine survey, ahead of power line renovation work on the outskirts of the village of Aasum, 5 kilometers, northeast of Odense, Denmark’s third-largest city.
Experts hope to conduct DNA analyses and possibly reconstruct detailed life histories, as well as looking into social patterns in Viking Age, such as kinship, migration patterns and more.
“This opens a whole new toolbox for scientific discovery,” said Borre Lundø as he stood on the muddy, wind-swept excavation site. “Hopefully we can make a DNA analysis on all the skeletons and see if they are related to each other and even where they come from.”
During the Viking Age, considered to run from 793 to 1066 A.D., Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raids, colonizing, conquering and trading throughout Europe, even reaching North America.
The Vikings unearthed at Aasum likely weren’t warriors. Borre Lundø believes the site was probably a “standard settlement,” perhaps a farming community, located 5 kilometers from a ring fortress in what’s now central Odense.
The 2,000-square meter burial ground holds the remains of men, women and children. Besides the skeletons, there are a few cremated bodies.
In one grave, a woman is buried in a wagon -- the higher part of a Viking cart was used as a coffin — suggesting she was from the “upper part of society,” Borre Lundø told The Associated Press.
Archeologists also unearthed brooches, necklace beads, knives, and even a small shard of glass that may have served as an amulet.
Borre Lundø said the brooch designs suggest the dead were buried between 850 and 900 A.D.
“There’s different levels of burials,” he explained. “Some have nothing with them, others have brooches and pearl necklaces.”
Archeologists say many of the artefacts came from far beyond Denmark’s borders, shedding light on extensive Viking trade routes during the 10th century.
“There’s a lot of trade and commerce going on,” said Borre Lundø. “We also found a brooch that comes from the island of Gotland, on the eastern side of Sweden, but also whetstones for honing your knife ... all sorts of things point to Norway and Sweden.”
The burial site was discovered last year, and the dig, which started in April, ended Friday. Boxes of artefacts have shipped to Museum Odense’s preservation labs for cleaning and analysis.
Conservator Jannie Amsgaard Ebsen hopes the soil may also hold other preserved organic material on the backs of brooches or knife handles.
“We’re really hoping to gain the larger picture. Who were the people that were living out there? Who did they interact with?” she said. “It’s a little bit like a jigsaw puzzle: all the various puzzle parts will be placed together.”