Belarussian writer Svetlana Alexievich won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature yesterday, honored for her work chronicling the horrors of war and life under the repressive Soviet regime.
The Swedish Academy hailed the 67-year-old “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.”
Alexievich has drawn international acclaim for her moving accounts of Chernobyl, World War II and the war in Afghanistan crafted through thousands of interviews with men, women and children.
Photo: Reuters
“By means of her extraordinary method — a carefully composed collage of human voices — Alexievich deepens our comprehension of an entire era,” the academy wrote.
The academy’s permanent secretary, Sara Danius, said she had spoken to Alexievich, who reacted to the news with just one word: “Fantastic.”
Alexievich, only the 14th woman to win the prize since it was first awarded in 1901, had been the top choice among literary observers and among the bookmakers’ favorites.
Danius, speaking to the Nobel Foundation, called her “an extraordinary writer,” adding: “It’s a history of emotions she’s offering us.”
By chronicling her thousands of interviews, “she’s offering us a history of a human being about whom we didn’t really know that much, at least not in this systematic manner. At the same time she’s offering us a history of emotions. A history of the soul if you wish,” she said.
Alexievich takes home 8 million Swedish kronor (US$950,000). The last woman to win was Canada’s Alice Munro in 2013.
Alexievich has seen her works translated into numerous languages and has scooped several international awards, but her books, controversially written in Russian, are not published in her home country, long ruled by authoritarian Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, amid what the author has described as “a creeping censorship.”
The Nobel awards week continues today with the other most closely watched award, the Nobel Peace Prize.
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