Norwegian author, playwright and poet Jon Fosse has been named the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The Swedish Academy said on Thursday it was for his “innovative plays and prose which gives voice to the unsayable”.
As well as the prize, Fosse receives 11 million Swedish kronor (£822,000).
He admitted he was “overwhelmed and somewhat frightened” by the news. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre posted: “All of Norway congratulates and is proud today!”
He wrote that the prize was “a great recognition of a unique authorship that makes an impression and touches people all over the world”.
The celebrated 64-year-old’s major works include the Septology series of novels, Aliss at the Fire, Melancholy and A Shining.
Speaking to Norwegian state broadcaster NRK, Fosse said he had “prepared myself mentally for the last decade” that this day might come.
Previous winners of the prize – given for a body of work, rather than a single book – have included Toni Morrison, Doris Lessing, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Bob Dylan.
Born in 1959, in Haugesund on the west coast of Norway, Fosse grew up in Strandebarm. At the age of seven he nearly died in an accident, which he has said was “the most important experience” of his childhood and one that “created” him as an artist.
(BBC News)
