[limitedfrom]

Deborah Smith translated her biggest works (The Vegetarian & Human Acts). In fact, her translation arguably single-handedly led to Han Kang winning the Man Booker International Prize in 2016, which then made her popular outside Korea. The translations have been quite popular, but a bit controversial as well[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Smith_(translator)

[lifthrasiir]

It's not like that Han Kang doesn't speak English and Smith butchered her works in secrecy. Han Kang has even explicitly supported the English translation so the "controversy" should be considered ungrounded.

[limitedfrom]

The flip side is that she might not want to criticize the translator (and translations) that brought her the biggest amount of success & fame. Plus, it's possible that the author herself is more comfortable with the amount of "deviation" than some readers and that's a personal preference thing at the end of the day.

[simplegeek]

Thank you!