Nordic Council Prize for Literature 2010

[Bjorn]

The Nordic Council's Literature Prize is awarded for a work of literature written in one of the Nordic languages, that meets "high literary and artistic standards". Established in 1962, the prize is awarded every year, and is worth 350,000 Danish kroner (2008).

Official site

List of previous winners

My review of last year's winner, Per Petterson's I Curse The River Of Time. Generally speaking, I've been very impressed with the books they've chosen in recent years.

This year's nominees, announced a couple of minutes ago, are:

Peter Laugesen: Fotorama (poetry, Denmark)
Ida Jessen: B?rnene (novel, Denmark)
Sofi Oksanen: Puhdistus (novel, Finland)
Monika Fagerholm: Glitterscenen (novel, Finland)
Einar K?rason: Ofsi (novel, Iceland)
Steinar Bragi: Konur (novel, Iceland)
Karl Ove Knausg?rd: Min kamp I (novel, Norway)
Tomas Espedal: Imot kunsten (novel, Norway)
Steve Sem-Sandberg: De fattiga i Ł?dź (novel, Sweden)
Ann J?derlund: Vad hj?lper det en m?nniska om hon h?ller rent vatten ?ver sig i alla sina dagar (poetry, Sweden)

[Eric]

I would, of course, automatically put my money on Sofi Oksanen, because she examines the traumas of Estonia in a fairly poetic way. Fagerholm may also be a potential winner. I'm sorry to say that I don't know anything about the Danish and Norwegian entries. I've translated a bit of J?derlund. I hope that Sem-Sandberg's book isn't yet another piece of Holocaust kitsch; if not, the book may be worthwhile. But the fate of Ł?dź (Wooch to you) is not a new subject, neither in Polish or Yiddish literature. I hope Sem-Sandberg adds something new.

[Bjorn]

And Eric is presumably now a rich man, as the winner is... Sofi Oksanen.

Sofi Oksanen's novel 'Puhdistus'* takes place in two periods of time in Estonia, but its themes of love, treachery, power and powerlessness are timeless. 'Puhdistus' vibrates with tension: unspoken secrets and deeply shameful deeds stretch out across the book like a web and compel the reader to keep reading. With a rare precise and apposite language Oksanen describes what history does to individuals and history's presence in the present.

* Purge in English

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/...nen-purge.html