“The Vegetarian” by Han Kang (3 August, 2016)

Last month's book, The Fight by Norman Mailer was a great read, vivid and engaging and as Mark said "far and away the best book on boxing that I've ever read."  I thought it was a surprisingly thoughtful book which talked a lot about the world surrounding the boxers and the milieu of the fight in Kinshasa, gave some background of the African man and some tribal customs, of the corruption and inefficiencies of such a nepotistic system of government under Mobutu, and the assorted personalities of the fighters' entourages.  The language in the book reminded me of the best of Hunter S Thompson's work where simple expression and powerful imagery makes the words leap off the page.

I later learnt that there was also a 3 day music festival – Zaire '74 – scheduled for the same time as the fight with many black American and African artists.  The fight was delayed by six weeks because of an injury that Foreman sustained but the concert went ahead and was quite successful.  I don't recall that being mentioned in the book.

Tom suggested this month's book, The Vegetarian by Han Kang, an interesting choice because it's a recent Korean work which won the Booker prize this year.