Many were sure that it would be a woman from Asia who would receive the Nobel Prize in 2024, says author Jens Liljestrand when Washington Post wonders which candidate he believes in this year. He guessed correctly last year - on Han Kang.
But this year, I do not think people are as sure, he says to the newspaper.
Being overlooked
Can Xue was one of the favorite tips when Han Kang received the prize. And Mathilde Montpetit, a doctoral student at New York University, launches the theory that all those who are frequently mentioned in the speculations are being overlooked - in favor of a similar, but more unexpected author.
She herself bet on Indian Amitav Ghosh before his name was picked up on the betting lists, as an alternative to the more well-known Salman Rushdie.
Ghosh writes both fiction and non-fiction, has won a number of other major prizes (but not too many), and his perspective on colonialism, the opium wars and their impact on the present is exactly the kind that the committee loves, she says to Washington Post.
”Philip Roth syndrome”
Now, Ghosh has started being mentioned by more people. The Hungarian László Krasznahorkai is also a name on many people's lips, as is the Australian Gerald Murnane. France Info points out that no Latin American author has received the prize since Mario Vargas Llosa in 2010 - and mentions the often-tipped Argentine César Aira, the Mexican newcomer Cristina Rivera Garza, and the Chilean Raúl Zurita.
Two women who otherwise constantly return in the speculations are Margaret Atwood, who will soon release her memoirs, and the American Joyce Carol Oates. But Le Figaro notes that they seem to be victims of the "Philip Roth syndrome" - constantly mentioned, never chosen.
Elin Swedenmark/TT
Erika Josefsson/TT
Fact: Nobel laureates in literature in recent years
TT
2024, Han Kang, South Korea.
2023, Jon Fosse, Norway.
2022, Annie Ernaux, France.
2021, Abdulrazak Gurnah, United Kingdom/Zanzibar.
2020, Louise Glück, USA.
2019, Peter Handke, Austria.
2018, Olga Tokarczuk, Poland.
2017, Kazuo Ishiguro, United Kingdom/Japan.
2016, Bob Dylan, USA.
2015 Svetlana Aleksijevitj, Belarus.
2014 Patrick Modiano, France.
