The “La storia in un romanzo 2020” award has been granted for 13 years to the best creators of contemporary prose by writers and journalists. The previous winners include Umberto Eco, Art Spiegelman, Ian McEwan, and the previous year’s winner – Svetlana Alexievich.

Olga Tokarczuk was awarded for “outside-of-the-box, wonderful, and surprising” novels, as well as for introducing historical themes into fiction. The jury emphasised that she touches upon the important issues of the modern world – those related to feminism, animal rights, and harm to minorities. She also teaches us that “change is always more noble than stability”.

“I am happy because this award shows that literature works. What I have written many kilometres away, in the forests in the north of Poland, is suddenly understood, appreciated in the south of Italy, and readers are able to understand what I have tried to express in my language, other than yours. I thank all the translators of the world for their ability, like the messengers of Hermes, to lead, to transmit information from one language, one culture to another,” said the Nobel Prize winner on September 19, upon receiving the Italian prize.

source: Polish Press Agency (PAP)