The students read their own texts about his literature, but also about the visit to the Stock Exchange in Old Town earlier this fall when this year's Nobel Prize winner was announced. Ryan reads aloud from the stage:
"At 12:55 everything became dead quiet, eerily quiet. You couldn't even hear anyone breathing. The second the clock struck 1:00 PM, the door opened and Mats Malm came out. He was as tall as the door and spoke very formally but no one applauded and everyone started doing research," he says and László Krasznahorkai laughs.
At Rinkeby Library, however, everyone stood up and applauded when this year's Nobel Prize winner was led in, arm in arm with two students in Santa hats. Approximately 150 students from Elinsborgsskolan and Enbacksskolan in Tensta, Askebyskolan in Rinkeby, and young readers from Rinkeby Library have worked with Krasznahorkai's texts, and a selection of them are participating in the presentation.
A tooth
Fourth graders from Askeby School have made a look-alike with scenes from “The Melancholy of Resistance.” The cherries at Mrs. Pflaum’s house are made by Ruweda.
While I was painting them, I lost a tooth. Do you want to know a secret? I put it in the jar with the cherries. The story was a bit scary and like a nightmare, so it was a good fit, she says.
Finally, László Krasznahorkai is called to the stage and receives a booklet with the students' reflections and a framed portrait.
What can I say about the hope? You are the hope. In short: no texts, no prizes, but you are the hope here at this wonderful school! Thanks also to your teachers, without them this work would not have been done, he says.
Ninth grader Salma Ali Jimaleh at Enbacksskolan has read "The Last Wolf" together with the rest of the class.
It's about the last wolf who is murdered, it's quite dark, but he wrote it so well that you got so much emotion from the text, she says.
Generous coffee break
Classmate Miyase Atay's nervousness on stage eased when she saw the smiling Krasznahorkai in row one, she says.
Before, I didn't know that you could write books without periods, but thanks to him I know. In the future, I want to become a writer on top of another job.
Finally, László Krasznahorkai has coffee for a generous half hour with ten students at a time, who seamlessly switch between them. The conversations are lively, interested and fearless.
There is something very special happening here, notes project manager and author Katarina Lycken Rüter.
Erika Josefsson/TT
Facts: Nobel in Rinkeby and Tensta
TT
Dario Fo was the first prize winner to come to Rinkeby to meet the school children.
Since 1988, they have read the Nobel Prize winners of the year and made a text booklet that the winner received as a gift. Since 1997, those laureates who were able to have a go have also come to visit. The basic idea behind Nobel in Rinkeby is that multilingualism gives strength and the students who participated in this year's work know 40 different languages together. Nobel in Rinkeby was started by cultural scientist Elly Berg and author Gunilla Lundgren.
