For her novel, Please Look After Mom, Kyung-sook Shin won the Man Asian Literary Prize, becoming the first woman to win the prize in its five year history.
The South Korean novelist attended the black tie prize dinner at The Conrad Hotel in Hong Kong to receive the award of $30,000. The translator of the novel, Chi-Young Kim, also received $5,000. Not only is the win a first for a South Korean writer, but Please Look After Mom is also the first South Korean novel to be shortlisted for the prize.
The novel is about a family's search for their mother, who goes missing one afternoon amid the crowds of the Seoul Station subway. It has sold almost 2 million copies in South Korea alone (where the total population is just 50 million). The book is set to be published in 32 countries.
