Light and Thread

By: Han Kang, Maya West - translator, e. yaewon - translator, Paige Aniyah Morris - translator

Narrated by: Greta Jung

Brought to you by Penguin.

What is love?
It is the gold thread connecting between our hearts.

In this light-filled and multi-faceted book, her first since being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, Han Kang draws together the threads of her work and life, tracing the connections between her interior and exterior worlds through a sequence of essays, poems, photographs and diaries.

A book of reflections, of words and light, it has at its heart the tiny, north-facing courtyard garden at her home, cultivated solely through the reflected sunlight of the mirrors which she must move throughout the day, as the earth turns on its axis.

In a poem written at eight years old, Han Kang imagined a ‘gold thread’ of connection – an idea which she explores here with luminous attention, beginning with her Nobel Lecture. She writes of the wonder of following the thread we call language into the depths of other hearts, and her profound sense of an electric current which joins writer and reader.

Both intimate and illuminating, Light and Thread is a book for all readers of Han Kang’s unique body of work.

© Han Kang 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Critic reviews

The prolific South Korean author is back with her first book since winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 2025. In Light and Thread, Kang recalls a poem she wrote at eight years old in which she imagined that “gold thread” of connection, language. Here she uses that thread to tie together essays and poems, her life and her work, beginning with “Nobel lecture” in which the author discusses her writing process and the myriad questions that drive her work