South Korean Bookstores Sell Over 300,000 Copies of Han Kang's Books in 24 Hours After Nobel Win

A nationwide literary frenzy swept South Korea on Friday as the country's three largest book retailers—Kyobo Book Centre, Yes24, and Aladin—reported combined sales exceeding 300,000 copies of novels and poetry collections by Han Kang within 24 hours of her historic Nobel Prize in Literature win. The 53-year-old author's recognition by the Swedish Academy as the first South Korean and first Asian woman to win the prestigious literary prize triggered an immediate surge in demand that briefly crashed major e-commerce book platforms.

By Friday afternoon in Seoul, Yes24 had recorded more than 130,000 copies sold, Kyobo Book Centre tallied over 103,000 copies, and Aladin logged roughly 70,000 copies—equating to more than 200 books sold every minute across the country. At Kyobo's flagship Gwanghwamun store in central Seoul, hundreds of commuters and students formed long lines before opening hours to claim the last remaining physical copies on display tables.

'Human Acts' and 'The Vegetarian' Sweep Top 10 Bestseller Rankings

Han's works occupied every single position from first to tenth on the real-time bestseller lists of all three retailers. Her 2014 novel 'Human Acts' (Boy Approaches), which confronts the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, ranked first overall in post-announcement sales, closely followed by her Man Booker International Prize-winning novel 'The Vegetarian' and her 2021 historical novel 'We Do Not Part', alongside 'The White Book' and 'Greek Lessons'.

With warehouse inventories exhausted within hours of Thursday evening's announcement in Stockholm, most orders quickly shifted to pre-order status. Major South Korean publishing houses Changbi Publishers and Munhakdongne immediately contracted printing plants in the Paju Book City industrial cluster north of Seoul to operate rotary presses continuously through the weekend.

“We are witnessing an unprecedented cultural milestone in Korean publishing history, with orders for Han Kang's works surging more than a thousandfold overnight across all age groups.” — Kyobo Book Centre Literary Sales Division

Emergency Print Runs in Paju and a Boom for Independent Bookshops

The sudden windfall also ignited a rally across South Korea's stock market on Friday, where shares of publicly traded book retailer Yes24 and paper manufacturer Hansol Paper surged to their daily 30% upper price limits on the Korea Exchange. Independent neighborhood bookstores and public libraries from Busan to Gwangju—Han Kang's birthplace—hastily curated dedicated tribute corners as borrowing requests multiplied.

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism officials hailed the Nobel triumph as a watershed moment for the global reach of Korean literature, following decades of translation support through the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea). Speaking briefly by phone with the Nobel Foundation after learning of the award while having dinner with her son in Seoul, Han Kang said she hoped the honor would bring warmth and quiet celebration to Korean readers and fellow writers.

Sources

• Kyobo Book Centre
• Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Korea