Once again, she didn’t win the Nobel Prize in Literature—but at this point, her legacy may already be secured
Upon the announcement in early October that Han Kang, the Korean author of The Vegetarian, would take the Nobel Prize in Literature, fans of Chinese author Can Xue, who had been widely regarded as the front-runner for the honor for six consecutive years, were generally sanguine.
There was not much outrage—a feeling that might have been justified had the Swedish Academy chosen an obscure European septuagenarian. Can Xue will either win the prize eventually or join a hallowed list of snubs that includes Virginia Woolf and James Joyce.
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