The Nordic Council has awarded its annual literary prize and prize money of 350,000 Danish kroner to Sofi Oksanen for her Estonian-themed novel Purge. |
The literature prize, which has been awarded each year since 1962, is open to works from the fields of prose, drama, poetry and essays which stand out for their literary and artistic value. Kristina Malmio, the Finnish member of the judging panel, says that the prize is designed to forge closer ties and a stronger shared identity between the Nordic countries. 11 works were submitted to the judging panel this year: two collections of poetry and nine novels. The Nordic Council will present the award to Oksanen at an official ceremony at the Nordic summit to be held in Reykjavik, Iceland, in November. |
Sofi Oksanen has won the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2010
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In explaining their choice, the judging panel said: "Sofi Oksanen's novel 'Puhdistus' (Purge) takes place in two periods of time in Estonia, but its themes of love, treachery, power and powerlessness are timeless. 'Puhdistus' vibrates with tension: unspoken secrets and deeply shameful deeds stretch out across the book like a web and compel the reader to keep reading. With a rare precise and apposite language Oksanen describes what history does to individuals and history's pervasion in the present." |