Coetzee wins Nobel Prize

The South African writer JM Coetzee has been awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature, worth SKr10m ($1.3m). The Swedish Academy, in making the announcement, noted that Coetzee's novels were "characterised by their well-crafted composition, pregnant dialogue and analytical brilliance".

Coetzee, who now lives in Australia, is known for shunning publicity. The only author to have won the Booker Prize on two occasions (on neither time accepting the prize in person) he has made no announcement on whether he intends to travel to Sweden for the Nobel awards ceremony.

There have been only three previous Nobel winners from Africa since 1980 - Nigeria's Wole Soyinka, Egypt's Naguib Mahfouz, and Nadine Gordimer, also from South Africa.

Copyright International Communications Nov 2003
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