Germany’s Herta Müller wins 2009 Nobel literature prize

Müller was honored for work that "with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed," the Swedish Academy said.

The 56-year-old author made her debut in 1982 with a collection of short stories titled "Niederungen," or "Nadirs," depicting the harshness of life in a small, German-speaking village in Romania. It was promptly censored by the communist government. In 1984 an uncensored version was smuggled to Germany, where it was published and devoured by readers. That work was followed by "Oppressive Tango" in Romania but she was eventually prohibited from publishing inside her country for her criticism of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's rule and its feared secret police, the Securitate. "The Romanian national press was very critical of these works while, outside of Romania, the German press received them very positively," the Academy said.

Müller, whose father served in the Waffen SS during World War II, is the third European to win the prize in a row and the 10th German, joining Guenter Grass in 1999 and Heinrich Boell in 1972.

"I think that there is an incredible force in what she writes, she has a very, very unique style," said Peter Englund, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy. "You read half the page and you know at once that it's Herta Müller."

"At the same time she has something to tell, partly from her own background as a persecuted dissident in Romania, but also her own background as a stranger in her own country, a stranger to the political regime, a stranger to the majority language, and a stranger to her own family," he added.

Müller emigrated to Germany with her husband in 1987, two years before Ceausescu was toppled from power amid the widening communist collapse across eastern Europe. Most of her work is in German, but some works have been translated into English, French and Spanish, including "The Passport," "The Land of Green Plums," "Traveling on One Leg" and "The Appointment."

Müller is the 12th woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature. Recent female winners include Austria's Elfriede Jelinek in 2004 and British writer Doris Lessing in 2007. The prize includes a 10 million kronor ($1.4 million) prize and will be handed out Dec. 10 in the Swedish capital.

Besides the monetary prize, each award includes a diploma, a gold medal and an invitation to the prize ceremony in Stockholm on Dec. 10. The peace prize is handed out in Oslo. Last year's literature prize went to French novelist Jean-Marie Le Clezio.

Works of Herta Müller

A partial list of books by Herta Müller, winner

    of the 2009 Nobel Prize for literature:

Works in English, translated from German:

«The Passport» (1989).

“The Land of Green Plums” (1996)

“Traveling on One Leg” (1998)

“The Appointment” (2001)

Works in German:

“Niederungen” (1984).

“Drückender Tango” (1996)

“Der Mensch ist ein groser Fasan                   auf der Welt” (1986)

“Barfüsiger Februar” (1987)

“Reisende auf einem Bein” (1989)

“Der Teufel sitzt im Spiegel” (1991)

“Der Fuchs war damals schon der Jäger” (1992)

“Eine warme Kartoffel ist ein

 warmes Bett” (1992)

“Im Haarknoten wohnt eine Dame” (2000).

“Heimat ist das, was gesprochen wird” (2001)

“Der König verneigt sich und tötet” (2003)

“Die blassen Herren mit den Mokkatassen” (2005)

  “Atemschaukel” (2009)

Winners of Nobel Prize in Literature since 1960

2008: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, France

2007: Doris Lessing, Britain

2006: Orhan Pamuk, Turkey

2005: Harold Pinter, Britain

2004: Elfriede Jelinek, Austria

2003: J.M. Coetzee, South Africa.

2002: Imre Kertesz, Hungary.

2001: V.S. Naipaul, Trinidad-born Briton.

2000: Gao Xingjian, Chinese-born French.

1999: Günter Grass, Germany.

1998: Jose Saramago, Portugal.

1997: Dario Fo, Italy.

1996: Wislawa Szymborska, Poland.

1995: Seamus Heaney, Ireland.

1994: Kenzaburo Oe, Japan.

1993: Toni Morrison, United States.

1992: Derek Walcott, St. Lucia.

1991: Nadine Gordimer, South Africa.

1990: Octavio Paz, Mexico.

1989: Camilo Jose Cela, Spain.

1988: Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt.

1987: Joseph Brodsky,

Russian-born American.

1986: Wole Soyinka, Nigeria.

1985: Claude Simon, France.

1984: Jaroslav Seifert, Czechoslovakia.

1983: William Golding, Britain.

1982: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Colombia.

1981: Elias Canetti, Bulgarian-born Briton.

1980: Czeslaw Milosz,

Polish-born American.

1979: Odysseus Elytis, Greece.

1978: Isaac Bashevis Singer,

Polish-born American.

1977: Vicente Aleixandre, Spain.

1976: Saul Bellow,

Canadian-born American.

1975: Eugenio Montale, Italy.

1974: Eyvind Johnson and Harry

Martinson, Sweden.

1973: Patrick White, British-born Australian.

1972: Heinrich Boell, West Germany.

1971: Pablo Neruda, Chile.

1970: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russia.

1969: Samuel Beckett, Ireland.

1968: Yasunari Kawabata, Japan.

1967: Miguel A. Asturias, Guatemala.

1966: Shmuel Y. Agnon, Polish-born Israeli, and Nelly Sachs, German-born Swede.

1965: Mikhail Sholokhov, Russia.

1964: Jean-Paul Sartre, France

(declined award).

1963: Giorgos Seferis, Turkish-born Greek.

1962: John Steinbeck, United States.

1961: Ivo Andric, Yugoslavia.

1960: Saint-John Perse,

Guadeloupe-born French.