The Nobel Library

Sisyphus

Sisyphus

Reader
Chales Simic - 0 Books
Annie Ernaux - 0 Books
Mia Couto - 0 Books
Jon Fosse - 0 Books
Michel Houellebecq - 0 Books
Ivan Vladislavic - 0 Books
Homero Aridjis – 0 Books (3 are not for loan/Wästberg's collection)
Can Xue - 0 Books
Xi Xi - 0 books
Yu Hua - 0 books
Zoe Wicomb - 0 books

Thoughts?
 
Leseratte

Leseratte

Well-known member
Thanks for your research, @Sisyphus. I think we must wait a bit more. This is a untypical year. Because of the Ukraine War, the Nobel speculation may take unusual directions.
 
Benny Profane

Benny Profane

Well-known member
After Abdulrazak Gurnah, we can search scholars, jury's members of another literary prizes, underground writers of short or long list of underground prizes, ukranian writers etc.

We will win again in this year, SA! ?
 
Last edited:
redhead

redhead

Blahblahblah
Thanks for taking a look. Echoing Leseratte, I think we need wait longer. Also, I think we can cross Couto, Vladislavic and Wicomb off for this year.

Edit: Also, do you see any checked out books? I wonder if we can’t see that anymore.
 
Last edited:
Bartleby

Bartleby

Moderator
redheadshadz said:
Thanks for taking a look. Echoing Leseratte, I think we need wait longer. Also, I think we can cross Couto, Vladislavic and Wicomb off for this year.

Edit: Also, do you see any checked out books? I wonder if we can’t see that anymore.
Click to expand...
I was thinking about this. Seems strange, likely to be due to this change in their system, but I remember previously checked out authors’ books taking some time until they appeared as available again; until late last year Simic still had his dozen books or so still due back for quite some time, for instance. I suspect that even if a book isn’t available they’ll show it as otherwise, but let's wait till at least April, give or take...
 
Salixacaena

Salixacaena

Active member
Bartleby said:
turns out Modiano also wrote some poetry

www.goodreads.com

28 Paradises

Poems by Patrick Modiano. Illustrated by Dominique Zehrfuss. Translated with an introduction by Damion Searls Published in English for t...
www.goodreads.com

But, yes, I know, most of these writers are known primarily for their novels rather than poems =P
Click to expand...

That Modiano book isn't really poetry. His wife made some rather simplistic illustrations and he captions each one. I bought it back when I got all go his stuff and was confused why I'd gotten it once it arrived ? the sort of thing you flip through once and shrug at
 
Salixacaena

Salixacaena

Active member
After the Gurnah mess I'm done with the library as far as searching goes. I'll still speculate and comment on other's searches but I'm not going to spend hours and hours compiling every single entry of theirs again only for someone who skirts by my research to win :cautious:
 
A

AvidReader

New member
Leseratte said:
Thanks for your research, @Sisyphus. I think we must wait a bit more. This is a untypical year. Because of the Ukraine War, the Nobel speculation may take unusual directions.
Click to expand...

About the speculation taking unusual directions, do you think they would award, for example, a Russian writer being vocal against Putin ? Like Vladimir Sorokin, or Ludmila Ulitskaya ?
The other option being awarding the Prize an Ukrainian writer — do one of you know any « big » Ukrainian name ?
 
Stevie B

Stevie B

Current Member
AvidReader said:
The other option being awarding the Prize an Ukrainian writer — do one of you know any « big » Ukrainian name ?
Click to expand...
Here's a portion of a Culture Trip article published five years ago about the best contemporary Ukrainian authors:

Oksana Zabuzhko

A talented Ukrainian author, Oksana Zabuzhko grew up in an intelligent family who were repressed during the ruling of Stalin. She is a philosopher, publicist, writer, and poetess whose work is soaked with feminist motives and human relations issues. Her novels are translated into more than 20 languages. The best books to read are Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex and The Museum of Abandoned Secrets.
 
Leseratte

Leseratte

Well-known member
AvidReader said:
About the speculation taking unusual directions, do you think they would award, for example, a Russian writer being vocal against Putin ? Like Vladimir Sorokin, or Ludmila Ulitskaya ?
The other option being awarding the Prize an Ukrainian writer — do one of you know any « big » Ukrainian name ?
Click to expand...
Sorry, Avid. I was thinking of something quite different. I was thinking about the possibility, depending on the spreading of this war, of there not being Nobel at all this year. But let´s be optimistic and hope for the best!
 
bacon

bacon

Active member
AvidReader said:
About the speculation taking unusual directions, do you think they would award, for example, a Russian writer being vocal against Putin ? Like Vladimir Sorokin, or Ludmila Ulitskaya ?
The other option being awarding the Prize an Ukrainian writer — do one of you know any « big » Ukrainian name ?
Click to expand...
Or also Tatiana Tolstaya? Related to Leo Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev, would sort of bring things full circle. Ukrainian author Serhiy Zhadan was recently nominated by the Polish Academy of Sciences for the Nobel Prize in Literature. I believe he is literally fighting the war in Ukraine right now, so if the war is still going on when the prize is released that would be an amazing statement by the Nobel Prize committee.
 
Liam

Liam

Administrator
While I wouldn't put it past the Academy to make such a statement, I really don't think they are going to. The best thing this year would be to award neither a Ukrainian nor a Russian writer, but perhaps a writer with a powerful anti-war stance. That would be statement enough in itself, ?‍♂️
 
Liam

Liam

Administrator
Not familiar with Zhadan's work, unfortunately, but Zabuzhko feels a little bit "lightweight" for the Nobel. Don't get me wrong, she's good, I just don't think she's in the same league as Svetlana Alexievich. But time will tell.
 
Benny Profane

Benny Profane

Well-known member
When will we create the best thread (2022 Nobel Speculation) of the forum (or maybe the best literary thread of all internet)?
I think these debates ought to be on this future thread!
It will be very exciting and interesting and new members will come!
 
Stevie B

Stevie B

Current Member
Liam said:
Not familiar with Zhadan's work, unfortunately, but Zabuzhko feels a little bit "lightweight" for the Nobel. Don't get me wrong, she's good, I just don't think she's in the same league as Svetlana Alexievich. But time will tell.
Click to expand...
I haven't read her, but it does appear her writing is quite varied.
 
K

kpjayan

Reader
Liam said:
Not familiar with Zhadan's work, unfortunately, but Zabuzhko feels a little bit "lightweight" for the Nobel. Don't get me wrong, she's good, I just don't think she's in the same league as Svetlana Alexievich. But time will tell.
Click to expand...

Somewhat agree. I've read only 'Fieldwork in Ukranian Sex' , that was 'lightweight'.

But the book feature in this list of 100 best books from Eastern Europe list..

 
Last edited:
Leseratte

Leseratte

Well-known member
Last edited:
tiganeasca

tiganeasca

Moderator
kpjayan said:
But the book feature un this list of 100 best books from Eastern Europe list..

Click to expand...
Jayan,
Thanks for posting this. I am always grateful to see what the, uh, "experts" choose. That said, it seems to me to be a very peculiar list (particularly in light of my own well-known and universally acknowledged expert status :rolleyes:). The Russian selections seem very...scattershot: plays by Catherine the Great and only one work each by Tolstoy (Resurrection), Dostoevsky (Demons), and Gogol (a collection of stories); Ivan Bunin but nothing at all by Chekhov or Turgenev.

Even stranger, for all the well-deserved and agreed-upon classics, there is nothing at all by Kafka, Capek, Prus, Jan Neruda. Three books from centuries of Hungarian literature (two of which are by Krasznahorkai), only post-WWII things for Romania, only postwar 20th century Polish works--which is inexcusable given the richness of Polish literature.

There are certainly some interesting modern selections and it's an informative list in many ways, but it's so...odd. ?
 
Last edited:
Liam

Liam

Administrator
^I usually don't mind as long as they preface their list by saying, "Look, I'm sure you're tired of seeing the same old names, so we're going to suggest something else to you: more unusual, more obscure, less well known, etc." Otherwise it is true, every list of the supposed "greats" from any country or region is basically the same, :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top