Belarusian journalist Svetlana Alexievich, 67, was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time," the Swedish Academy announced on Thursday. Her notable works in English include a book of first-hand accounts about the Soviet-Afghan war, Zinky Boys; War's Unwomanly Face, for which she interviewed over 200 women about the Second World War; and the expansive oral history of the Chernobyl disaster, Voices from Chernobyl, for which she has also won the National Book Critics Circle Award:
That great empire crumbled and fell apart. First Afghanistan, then Chernobyl. When it fell apart, we found ourselves all alone. I'm afraid to say it, but we love Chernobyl. It's become the meaning of our lives. The meaning of our suffering. Like a war. The world found out about our existence after Chernobyl. We're its victims, but also its priests. I'm afraid to say it, but there it is. [Voices from Chernobyl, via the Paris Review]
"I've been searching for a genre that would be most adequate to my vision of the world to convey how my ear hears and my eyes see life," Alexievich writes in her biography on her website. "I tried this and that and finally I chose a genre where human voices speak for themselves."
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