I really, really enjoyed her little book The Artificial Kingdom! An entirely convincing argument on why we are so obsessed with physical objects/trinkets that are of seemingly little value yet provide a form of escapism for [most of] us. Her little interwoven vignettes about her "pet" hermit crab encased in glass whom she names Rodney were something else! ?
Thanks! I'm reassured the tea leaves aren't spent for her.
Poor crab! And after Dylan, who knows she might have a chance?
Oh yeah I forgot to write that it was Europeana that became a theatre play here in Sweden.
I wonder if any one outside Wlf ever guessed Noble chances by the number of borrowed books per author.
They missed on Mulisch for real
I
Ida Vitale should have won a long time ago, but now that she is into her late nineties, she is almost ruled out. Advancing age could work against Antonio Gamoneda too just as for the two most deserving poets of Asian origin - Adonis and Ko Un. I know it is unfair to put Adonis and Ko Un on the same pedestal, but the scandal apart, Ko Un would have been an automatic choice from the Asian region purely on literary merit. If you are still in doubt, read his philosophical/mystic novel "The Little Pilgrim".
Shishkin would be a great choice but I agree probably not this year. But who knows, this war could go on a long time and that shouldn’t necessarily rule out every Russian exiled writer with strong anti Putin sentiments.
Cusk was probably checked out so they could compare "autofiction" - this accounts partially for Knausgaard too, and means neither will win the prize for about ten years. Hopefully Cusk never does.
I appreciate your insights here, and I share your hope that the SA will remain focused on the quality of the author's work. But to give you an idea of why I wrote "anyone writing in English" in response to the question One author you don't want to win (and why), I would simply say that a picture is sometimes worth a thousand words:
