This novel, first published in Korean in 2007 and in a three-part structure, follows a young woman in Seoul, Yeong-hye, who suddenly decides to stop eating meat after a disturbing dream. In a conventional household, her choice is met with confusion, anger and pressure. The story is told through the eyes of her husband, her brother-in-law and her sister, rather than her own. It explores control, family expectation, desire and the limits of the body, and asks how far a person may withdraw from the world's demands. It is short, strange and unsettling, and made Han Kang widely known abroad.