The Nobel Laureates in Literature

2008 - J. M. G. Le Clézio
2007 - Doris Lessing
2006 - Orhan Pamuk
2005 - Harold Pinter
2004 - Elfriede Jelinek
2003 - J. M. Coetzee
2002 - Imre Kertész
2001 - V. S. Naipaul
2000 - Gao Xingjian:
1999 - Günter Grass
1998 - José Saramago
1997 - Dario Fo
1996 - Wislawa Szymborska
1995 - Seamus Heaney
1994 - Kenzaburo Oe
1993 - Toni Morrison
1992 - Derek Walcott
1991 - Nadine Gordimer
1990 - Octavio Paz
1989 - Camilo José Cela
1988 - Naguib Mahfouz
1987 - Joseph Brodsky
1986 - Wole Soyinka
1985 - Claude Simon
1984 - Jaroslav Seifert
1983 - William Golding
1982 - Gabriel García Márquez
1981 - Elias Canetti
1980 - Czeslaw Milosz
1979 - Odysseus Elytis
1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer
1977 - Vicente Aleixandre
1976 - Saul Bellow
1975 - Eugenio Montale
1974 - Eyvind Johnson, Harry Martinson
1973 - Patrick White
1972 - Heinrich Böll
1971 - Pablo Neruda
1970 - Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
1969 - Samuel Beckett
1968 - Yasunari Kawabata
1967 - Miguel Angel Asturias
1966 - Shmuel Agnon, Nelly Sachs
1965 - Mikhail Sholokhov
1964 - Jean-Paul Sartre
1963 - Giorgos Seferis
1962 - John Steinbeck
1961 - Ivo Andric
1960 - Saint-John Perse
1959 - Salvatore Quasimodo
1958 - Boris Pasternak
1957 - Albert Camus
1956 - Juan Ramón Jiménez
1955 - Halldór Laxness
1954 - Ernest Hemingway
1953 - Winston Churchill
1952 - François Mauriac
1951 - Pär Lagerkvist
1950 - Bertrand Russell
1949 - William Faulkner
1948 - T.S. Eliot
1947 - André Gide
1946 - Hermann Hesse
1945 - Gabriela Mistral
1944 - Johannes V. Jensen
1939 - Frans Eemil Sillanpää
1938 - Pearl Buck The Good Earth
1937 - Roger Martin du Gard
1936 - Eugene O’Neill A Long Day’s Journey into Night
1934 - Luigi Pirandello
1933 - Ivan Bunin
1932 - John Galsworthy
1931 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt
1930 - Sinclair Lewis Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith
1929 - Thomas Mann The Magic Mountain, Death in Venice
1928 - Sigrid Undset
1927 - Henri Bergson
1926 - Grazia Deledda
1925 - George Bernard Shaw Pygmalion
1924 - Wladyslaw Reymont
1923 - William Butler Yeats
1922 - Jacinto Benavente
1921 - Anatole France
1920 - Knut Hamsun
1919 - Carl Spitteler
1917 - Karl Gjellerup, Henrik Pontoppidan
1916 - Verner von Heidenstam
1915 - Romain Rolland
1913 - Rabindranath Tagore
1912 - Gerhart Hauptmann
1911 - Maurice Maeterlinck
1910 - Paul Heyse
1909 - Selma Lagerlöf
1908 - Rudolf Eucken
1907 - Rudyard Kipling
1906 - Giosuè Carducci
1905 - Henryk Sienkiewicz
1904 - Frédéric Mistral, José Echegaray
1903 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
1902 - Theodor Mommsen
1901 - Sully Prudhomme

2009 - Herta Müller
2010 - Mario Vargas Llosa

Hello Rosa_Saks,

Thank you for updating rebeccareid's list. Have you read books by either of the two most recent laureates? Many Years ago I read Vargas Llosa's CONVERSATION IN THE CATHEDRAL. I have three of Herta Muller's books on my shelf, but have not read them yet.

The 2011 Nobel announcement is fast upon us. Who do you hope will win?

Of the most recent laureates I have read books by Lessing, Pamuk, Pinter and (one of my all time favourite authors) Coetzée. I haven't read anything by Müller og Vargas Llosa yet, but the latter one seems especially interesting. I have to pick up a Vargas Llosa novel soon, but I don't know where to begin. Would you recommend Conversation in the Cathedral?

Who should win this year.. hm.. that's a difficult question, and there are som many worthy candidates. I think I will have to say Ian McEwan for now, but I could change my mind.
Who do you suggest?

Ian McEwan! What a wonderful and slightly unexpected choice. Of his considerable body of work, the only book I've read is ATONEMENT, and I must say, it knocked my socks off. What I remember most about my experience of reading that book was being aware of reading, page by page, some of the most impressively nuanced prose going in English, but not being able to settle in and absorb it as I would have liked because the suspense he generated was acting like an outbreak of poison ivy in my brain. I also remember it containing some of the most riveting battle scenes this side of WAR AND PEACE. And the whole work is based on a shattering premise... If he won the Nobel, I would not protest.

I have a long list of writers I would love to see win. But I think it comes down to four. In no particular order, they are:

1. Tomas Transtromer (Swedish. One of the greatest poets alive.)
2. Alice Munro (Canadian. One of the two supreme practitioners of the short story in English. William Trever is the other.)
3. Philip Roth (American. I know he's controversial. Some people hate him. If you are one of them, I would understand but would have to disagree.)
4. Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (Russian. I discovered her about two years ago through a short book called THERE ONCE LIVED A WOMAN WHO WANTED TO KILL HER NEIGHBOR'S BABY: SCARY FAIRY TALES. it is, as the title would indicate, a collection like no other. I recently read her short novel THE TIME, NIGHT, and have decided she is a great, strange genius.)

I have a blog which I call "The Stockholm Shelf: The Nobel Prize for Literature, Its Winners, Their Books, and the Madness of Prestige". ( http://thestockholmshelf.com ) Sometime next week I will be posting my personal list of candidates for this year, and encouraging visitors to join the discussion and offer their lists. I hope you'll "drop by".

On the subject of Mario Vargas Llosa: It has been so long since I read CONVERSATION IN THE CATHEDRAL. My memory of it is that it is long and difficult, but rewards a dedicated reading. Very much to do with the troubled politics in Peru. I think most people would say to begin with AUNT JULIA AND THE SCRIPTWRITER. I hear it is fantastic, and it is probably where I will begin to reacquaint myself with this writer.

Ah, more worthy candidates.
Why on EARTH did I forget Alice Munro?? She has been on my personal shortlist for years, along with Margaret Atwood. Altough my favourite is still the already mentioned McEwan. So glad you're agreeing on that one, by the way.
I am actually one of those people who has never tackled Roth. The reason for that is the very fact that he is so controversial, and so many people hate him. I think I'll just have to see for myself now. Which book would you recommend for a Roth-rookie?
Also, as I am Norwegian, I am also crossing my fingers for a fourth Norwegian laureate. We already have the former laureates Bjørnson, Hamsun and Undset, and I would be very pleased if Jon Fosse, an amazing playwright, would join them.

I will defintiely check out your blog, by the way :-)

Britain has two recent winners in Pinter and Lessing--I don't think we'll see another British writer for at least several years. Transtromer and Roth have been knocking on the door for a long time.

A Canadian has never won--several pretty good candidates--Atwood, Ondaatje, Carson, Munro, Urquhart--Alistair MacLeod would be in the mix as well if he had a larger body of work.

The continent of Africa is fairly unrepresented as well. Kenya's Ngugi wa Thiong'O was rumored last year. Assia Djebar (Algeria) or Elias Khoury (Lebanon) would be excellent choices IMO.

Last I knew this year's betting odds were on Cormac McCarthy.

Yes, that's true.
Ondaatje is also a good suggestion. And i also think Joyce Carol Oates (although she is American) is a possible candidate. I have barely touched her huge cataloguge of work, but I like what I have read so far.

Oh, and Davidattheshelf! You should read Enduring Love by McEwan. One of his best works!

Please tell me about Jon Fosse. I've not heard of him, and I'm guessing this is my loss.

Roth... I think AMERICAN PASTORAL would be an excellent first choice. It is about... well, many things... but perhaps especially how being a highly successful, admired, handsome, heterosexual, American male fails to bring about the immunity to life's hardships, and even tragedies, that most people (Americans, at least) believe it brings. It is the first of a loose trilogy, linked by theme rather than story; they can well be read independently, in not particular order. The second is I MARRIED A COMMUNIST. The third, perhaps the most Shakespearean, is THE HUMAN STAIN. The bookends of this trilogy are as great examples of contemporary American literature as I have read.

I have not read SABBATH'S THEATER, but many cite this one as his crowning achievement.

I think for all but Roth's most dedicated admirers, the the books he has written recently, since EVERYMAN (2006), are best left on the shelf.

I would be fascinated to know how you, a Norwegian (do you currently live in Norway?) would respond to Roth's take-down of American culture, his parsing of its formidable dark side.

Hello Iriley,

Have you read Ngugi wa Thiong'O, or Assia Djebar? I have been wondering about them for a while (especially N.) but have not gotten to them, due to a backlog of reading. What works would you recommend?

And, speaking of the continent of Africa, why do we not hear more about Chinua Achebe? It seems to me that he is the real literary trailblazer, the pioneer, of his continent. Is Ngugi wa Thiong'O generally considered a greater writer? If you have an opinion on this, I'd love to know it.

The absence of Cormac McCarthy from my reading history constitutes a huge crater that, by all reports needs filling. Are you an admirer? Do you agree with his standing as a serious Nobel contender?

Thank you for the suggestion of ENDURING LOVE. I will seek it out.

And, please, by all means, call me David. "Davidattheshelf" is a foolish construction I had to come up with to join because the shorter, more sensible version of my name was, amazingly, taken.

Jon Fosse is most notably a playwright, but also a poet and novelist (mainly children's books, though). Today he is actually considered to be one of the world's greates contemporary playwrights, and in Norway he is actually considered to be one of our greatest writers since Henrik Ibsen. He's also been compared to Samuel Beckett numerous times.
What I find to be his greatest strength is his language. It is vibrant, and almost poetic.

Yes, I live in Norway. In Oslo, to be specific.
I have an MA degree in literature, specialising in English and American literature. And I still haven't read Roth. Weird. I will definitely be tackling him soon, though, definitely starting with American Pastoral. Someone once recommended Indignation to me also. Have you read that one?

Yeah, Chinua Achebe is also an interesting pick.
And what about Kazuo Ishiguro? Never Let Me Go is distrubingly good.

#4 Rosa_Saks, I am a big Vargas Llosa fan, but I wouldn't necessarily start with Conversation in the Cathedral, great as it is, because it exemplifies one of Vargas Llosa's techniques which is to mix the comments or thoughts or actions of different characters, sometimes even in the same paragraph or even sentence. It can be very very hard to figure out what is going on until you are well into the book. The same is true of The War of the End of the World, which is my favorite. Other books I've enjoyed which are easier to follow are Death in the Andes, Captain Pantoja and the Secret Service (incredibly funny), The Feast of the Goat, and to a lesser extent, The Storyteller. I also liked The Green House a lot, but it is also complex, with multiple protagonists, and hard to follow.

#10--I've read three books of each. Djebar's So vast a prison, Children of the new world and Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade. The best is Fantasia. I really liked Children as well.

For Ngugi I've read Petals of blood, A grain of wheat and a memoir Dreams in a time of war. For me the best of the three was A grain of wheat--keeping in mind that some think that his Wizard of the Crow to be his masterpiece. I have a signed copy of that but have not read it. It is a big book.

On McCarthy--he is an excellent writer IMO. Not exactly on top of my list of writers but he's not all that far away. I'd say I like him quite a lot. IMO his worst book is the one that might be his most popular--The road. His trilogy--All the pretty horses, The crossing and Cities of the plain are all compelling/worthwhile. Blood Meridian is somewhat in the same vein but a harder read though the action in it is much more violent than anything in the trilogy. He's almost a cross in a way between Faulkner and Hubert Selby. No country for old men is a real violent fun to read page turner. I liked Suttree very much and Outer Dark just a little bit less. Another comparison to McCarthy would be the Portugese writer Antonio Lobo Antunes. Of the two--it's close but I'd give the edge to Lobo--who is a master of ironic/exasperated humor.

I've read a lot of Ngugi too and would love to see him win. Wizard of the Crow is definitely my favorite, but I'm also a fan of both A Grain of Wheat and Petals of Blood, as well as Matigari and some of his nonfiction. The Author Theme Reads group is focusing on Ngugi for the last part of the year, and you can read, if you're interested, some of my thoughts on the books of his that I've read here.

#15--to be honest I'd like to see someone from the African continent win or from a country like Canada which has a rich literature tradition and no one has won before.

There are certainly deserving American and British writers but it shouldn't always go to the same places and someone like Djebar, Ngugi or Khoury winning means lots of people checking them out and seeing that other areas of the world have writers producing very fine work. Anyway I much prefer literature as a global thing than free market economics.

#12 Rosa_Saks,

Thank you for in information about Fosse. I am quite intrigued and look forward to acquainting myself with his work.

I have not read Indignation. My impression, based on a perfunctory examination of the book, reviews, and a discussion with a friend who did read it, is that it is not one of his better books. Whatever its merits may be, it is evidently minor. It was published within that time period I mentioned, (2006 to the present) ---books more for die-hard Roth fans than for Roth newcomers.

If anyone in this group has read it and has a different opinion of it, I would love to hear.

I have a friend who is completely besotted by Ishiguro. I must make time for him as well. But when?

#13 Hello rebeccanyc,

As part of my plunder from the last days of Borders Bookstore, I came home with three Vargas Llosa novels: In Praise of the Stepmother, The Feast of the Goat, and, your favorite, The War of the End of the World. This last is perhaps the novel of his that has most intrigued me and for the longest time. I've wondered about it for years. I would love to know how it came to be your favorite.

#14 Hello Iriley,

Thank you for the recommendations for works by Djebar and Ngugi. I have a bit of a backlog of reading at the moment, but I may have to raise these two hire on my list. I am anxious to know their work. You also mentioned Elias Khoury. I am curious...

It excites me to hear you mention Antonio Lobo Antunes. About ten or twelve years ago, I read An Explanation of the Birds and remember being blown away. I read him in conjunction with Jose Saramago, and I remember being uncertain as to which author I felt was the greater. I've since become a Saramago idolater. But still, every time I see a Lobo Antunes book, I pick it up and turn its pages with a certain longing. High praise for McCarthy that you would invoke the name of that Fadista of a novelist in comparison. Do you have a favorite work?

Since you've already read An explanation of the birds--I would suggest Fado Alexandrino--which might be his best regarded work (it's a long one), The inquisitors' manual, Act of the damned (love that title). Fat man and infinity is a lot of short pieces--stories and articles and very interesting as well.

I like Saramago but actually prefer Lobo.

For action McCarthy's best is No country for old men. The movie actually does a good job on the book. His border trilogy which starts with the All the pretty horses is a good place to start otherwise. Probably like Blood Meridian as much but it's a tougher read.

#18, David, The War of the End of the World was not the first Vargas Llosa I read, but it was the first one I read after a gap of about 20 years, and I was just incredibly impressed by its complexity, by the way Vargas Llosa gets inside the heads of so many different characters, each of whom believes his way of looking at the situation is right, even to the point of fanaticism and delusion, and by his depiction of the harsh and remote environment in which the story unfolds. You could certainly say that some of these are typical of a lot of Vargas Llosa, in particular of Conversation in the Cathedral, which is many people's favorite, and to a lesser extent Green House and others, so maybe it is just that I read it first and I was taken by the environment and the situation. By the way, I was not so crazy about In Praise of the Stepmother which, along with its sequel, The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto, I read earlier this year: they are quite different from Vargas Llosa's other work, and I am glad I read them after I had become such a confirmed MVL fan.

Going back to your list in #4, I love Alice Munro (and, speaking of Canadian short story writers, I love Mavis Gallant even more, but I don't know if I consider them Nobel-worthy since it has to be for their whole body of work and I don't know that their work has the breadth the Nobel judges seem to look for.

As for the discussion of Roth, I am a big Roth fan, but mostly for his earlier work, including American Pastoral, which I consider his masterpiece. I've read some of his more recent novels, including Indignation, and feel it's not at all up to his earlier work; I wouldn't say the recent work is "for die-hard Roth fans"; I would rather say, perhaps unfairly, that it's to make money for Roth.

I've only read one Saramago, The History of the Siege of Lisbon, and really enjoyed it. I have some other Saramagos on the TBR, but haven't gotten to them yet. Similarly, I've read one Le Clezio, The Prospector, and hope to read some others. Of course I've also read work by many of the earlier winners like Pasternak and Andric and others, but I really should get around to reading more Nobel winners.

Like lriley, I would love to see someone from Africa win, and in particular I would love to see Ngugi win.

Actually a big fan of MVL too. My favorite book of his is Conversation in the Cathedral. After that I'd rank War of the end of the world, Feast of the Goat, Real life of Alejandro Mayta and The way to Paradise in the next tier. I've read a number of other works but those I liked the best.

Khoury's Gate of the sun to me is a must read. Djebar's Fantasia is just about a must.

Just to add a cynical note and speaking of Ngugi--Complete Review called the Nobel for Ngugi the day before the actual announcement and then it went to MVL. In between I was online buying signed copies by Ngugi--not that I intend to necessarily sell them later on and I'd already had one anyway (and there's not a whole bunch)--I expect my library to be scattered to the winds after my demise but the inheritors might at least get something out of it--so if Ngugi wins it's fine by me.

Iriley

#20. Thank you for the A. Lobo Antunes recomendations. Fado Alexandrino and Act of the Damned have been on my radar for quite awhile. Have you read What Can I Do When Everything's On Fire?? It was on the shelf at the local B&N for about fifteen minutes, long enough to get me fascinated, but not long enough to give me time to justify buying it, being as that I was feeling awash in books at the time.

and #22. Love the story of the signed Ngugi wa Thiong'O editions! Your impulse to buy them ahead of the game indicates an admirable enthusiasm. A great way to go at life. Are signed books a thing for you?

#21. rebeccanyc, I think you have convinced me that, when I get my chance to dive into Mario Vargas Llosa, it will be with The War of the End of the World. It sounds outstanding.

On Alice Munro: I believe she does have the breadth to make her a worthy laureate. I understand how this breadth might be missed: she writes about such apparently unremarkable characters, and Ontario is not a sexy place. She doesn't venture sprawling, philosophically complex novels like her compatriot, M. Atwood. With the exception of, I think, just one novel, she has channeled her energies only into short stories. Declasse to be sure. Ivan Bunin is the only Nobel laureate who comes to mind of whom this is true. But what she dredges up from somewhere near the sewer system of her character's souls, and how she does it - by sticking so unflinchingly to the apparent surface of her stories - makes her, to my mind, a courageous and unqualified genius. Her metier may be the short story, but she has so exploded that form, and in such an organic, un-showy way, that she sits comfortably along side any of the great innovators of fiction at work today. Then there is the service she does for her region, bringing Southern Ontario into the international consciousness for the first time, as surely as Pearl Buck brought China to the West. Only Munro has a far superior linguistic apparatus with which she does this. I don't know anyone who packs so many layers of information into such short, unadorned sentences. She is the kind of writer who would, I think, honor the Nobel perhaps more than the Nobel could honor her.

How's that for a panegyric?

A question for both you and Iriley (or any others who have an opinion): Please educate me, if you can, on the merits of Ngugi wa Thiong'O over Chinua Achebe. I have, to my lack, read neither, so I have no basis to compare. Only, Achebe is senior and a long-acknowledged pioneer.

I agree with a lot of what you say about Alice Munro; my point was that I don't think the Nobel Committee would see it that way! (And I have to say I was underimpressed by the Ivan Bunin colleciton I read last year!

Can't help you with Achebe vs. Ngugi because I (shamefully) haven't read any Achebe. Ngugi has made a big point of the importance of writing in African, rather than colonial languages, but Achebe was writing at a different time.

I see your point about Alice Munro. I actually agree with you. I would be surprised if the Nobel Committee honored her. Margaret Atwood, of whom I have read very little, has always seemed the more likely candidate (and, by all reports, a highly deserving one).

I don't know anyone who who thinks Ivan Bunin is a great writer. For that matter, I don't know anyone who thinks of him at all. He is one of those enticing little canapes on the Nobel hors d'oeuvres table who is kind of fun to discover. I confess a small-scale fondness for him, perhaps on the order of the small-scale fondness I have developed for William Golding over the past few weeks, reading his novels in preparation for the post about him I wrote for my blog, "The Stockholm Shelf" ((http://thestockholmshelf.com). Hope you "drop by") to mark his centenary. And just as Golding wrote at least one novel I think may be truly great, Pincher Martin, so Ivan Bunin wrote at least one short story which I greatly love, The Gentleman from San Francisco.

There are a number of Nobel prize winners that I consider to be on the mediocre/undeserving end. I don't think of it necessarily as a claim to greatness. In my estimation Halldor Laxness might have been the best choice they ever made. Lots of major writers never got that prize.

Generally though the last 20 years or so they've been pretty good selections.

You bring up one of the perennial go-arounds about the Nobel. We all know that without Tolstoy, Nabokov, Henry James, or Borges on the list, it becomes very difficult to take those Scandinavian perveyors of literary reputations very seriously. And yet, the myth of the prize has it that its winners are the unqualified best. The Prize is a problem when taken as seriously as The Prize would have us take it. My thought is that the Nobel is an artifact of the universal human impulse to worship...something. Better that than some of the more destructive directions that impulse can take us. For me, it is a source of fascination and good fun. There is a kind of pleasure in getting exercised that Pearl Buck won while while Virginia Woolf did not, or that Rilke was snubbed in favor of Sully Prudhomme. Its almost more fun than nodding in satisfaction at Faulkner's laurels, or Thomas Mann's.

I'm interested in your esteem for Halldor Laxness. A few years ago I read Independent People and thought it a very great book. But I've never heard him referred to as "the best choice they ever made". I'd love to know why you think so.

#28--most great writers maybe write one standout book in their life which becomes for many of its readers--that writer's masterpiece. Some great writers actually don't really have a standout but it's just consistently good work over a period of time. That's kind of how I see someone like Philip Roth or a recent Nobel winner Le Clezio.

Laxness has some stuff that definitely lags behind but IMO not only Independent People is a very great book but Iceland's bell andWorld light are equal to that and Salka Valka is very close. But that's just an opinion--I'm sure the idea of reading novels set in Iceland isn't everyone's cup of tea. But he is a great favorite of mine.

#29. Since reading INDEPENDENT PEOPLE, I have always known I would return to Laxness. Your fondness for his books reawakens my interest.

I remember while reading I. P. being reminded of Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun. Later I read that Laxness was influenced by Hamsun. I am guessing you have read Hamsun. If not, I hope you do. You will, I am confident, love him.

I am interested, too, that you refer to Le Clezio as a writer who has done "consistently good work over a period of time." I've not read him yet. You, it seems, think well of his books?

I've read most of Hamsun's novels-12 altogether. If I had a favorite it would be The women at the pump.

I've read all of Le Clezio's works that have come out in translation. His earlier novels and short stories are more experimental (He was loosely associated with the Nouveau Romantics--Butor, Simon, Sarraute, Robbe-Grillet) than his later works. My favorite of his works is The Giants which definitely belongs with the first experimental works. Not necessarily something I would recommend reading first though. A good beginning to see if you like his writing would be one of his short story collections especially The round and other cold hard facts or the recently published Mondo and other stories. As for novels I'd recommend The prospector first.