Belarusian journalist wins literature Nobel for real-life accounts

Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarussian journalist and prose writer known for deeply researched works about female Russian soldiers in World War II and the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, won the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time,” the Swedish Academy announced.

Alexievich, 67, is the 14th woman to win the literature prize and a rarity in that her work is mainly nonfiction.

Sara Danius, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said Alexievich had created “a history of emotions — a history of the soul, if you wish.”

Her works often blend literature and journalism. She is best known for giving voice to women and men who lived through major events like the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan that lasted from 1979 to 1989, and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986, in which her own sister was killed and her mother was blinded.

“She’s devised a new kind of literary genre,” Danius said.

Perhaps her most acclaimed book is “War’s Unwomanly Face” (1988), based on interviews with hundreds of women who took part in World War II. The book was the first in a series, “Voices of Utopia,” that depicted life in the Soviet Union from the point of view of ordinary citizens.

“I’m very happy,” Alexievich, who will receive $950,000, said in a statement Thursday released by her agent. “The greater part of my path has been traveled, but much work remains ahead of me, and many new turns. Now I cannot let myself slide.”