Man Asian Literary Prize winner sees book sales spike
26th March 2012
Sales of Kyung-Sook Shin's acclaimed novel Please Look After Mother have risen dramatically since the author scooped the Man Asian Literary Prize earlier this month.
A spokesperson for Weidenfeld & Nicolson, the UK publishers of the book, revealed that the title experienced an enormous rise in popularity after being shortlisted for the USD 30,000 prize, with sales continuing to spike after the winner was announced.
'Being shortlisted for, and winning, the Man Asian Literary Prize provided a large boost to our sales, especially in export territories, as well as renewed publicity at home and abroad,' he added.
Shin is the first woman to win the Man Asian Literary Prize since it was established in 2007 and she explained that the journey to find the mother in the book is akin to mankind's journey to regain what the world has lost in the progress of modernity.
'As a Korean writing in Korea in the Korean language, to be winning this prize feels like a new start in more ways than one and that makes me happy. I feel like to think about mother is to think about oneself - a reflection of oneself,' she added.
Please Look After Mother, which has already sold two million copies in Korea, has now been picked up by publishers in 32 countries, with many of Shin's previous works also set to receive English translations in the coming months.