In May 1980, students, joined by other civilians – many of them children – took to the streets in Gwangju, South Korea, to protest against the extending of martial law by dictatorial army general Chun Doo-hwan. In an act of infamous violence, paratroopers indiscriminately shot at and used flamethrowers, bayonets and clubs against the unarmed crowds, killing an estimated 1,000-2,000 people. Han Kang, born and raised in Gwangju, sets Human Acts – a series of interconnected chapters, each a soul, “sundered” and “scattered” by the atrocities of 1980 – towards the end of the violence. The book is partly written in an unnervingly immersive second person, the reader assuming the role of Dong-ho, a boy looking for his dead friend while helping catalogue bodies. His and others’ stories are gradually pieced together; like loved ones of the missing, we search for their names throughout. A rare and astonishing book, sensitively translated by Deborah Smith, Human Acts enrages, impassions and, most importantly, gives voices back to those who were silenced.

Human Acts is published by Granta (£12.99). Click here to buy it for £10.39