The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015 Announced!

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015 was awarded to Svetlana Alexievich "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time". She is the first journalist to receive this award.

Alexievich is a Belarusian non fiction author who has been hailed as the best of writers to map the implosion of the Soviet Union and has become the 14th woman to win this prestigious prize since the award started in 1901. By her own admission, she has revealed in various interviews that her work has often been influenced by Belarusian writer Ales Adamovich who insisted that the only way to describe the horrors of the 20th century was not to create fiction but to document the testimonies of the witnesses.

Although the author is widely translated into German, French and Swedish, winning a range of major prizes for her work, English editions of her work are sparse and are considerably pricey even on Amazon (the price tag for her 1988 book 'War's Unwomanly Face' comes in at a staggering 999.11 pounds)

Her list of works include, among many titles, 'Voices from Chernobyl' (1999) and 'Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War' (1992) - you can read them for FREE in pdf HERE.