Saul Bellow lives in America
GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
Gabriel García Márquez was born in 1928 in the small town of Aracataca, situated in a tropical region of northern Colombia. He went to a Jesuit college and began to read law, but his studies were soon broken off for his work as a journalist. In 1954 he was sent to Rome on an assignment for his newspaper, and since then he has mostly lived abroad - in Paris, New York, Barcelona and Mexico. In addition to his large output of fiction he has written screenplays and has continued to work as a journalist. In 1981 Garcia Marquez was awarded the French Legion of Honor, the highest decoration France gives to a foreigner. In 1982, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature and used the money to start a daily newspaper, El Otro, in Colombia.
GUNTER GRASS
Born in Danzig, Germany (now Gdansk, Poland) Gunter Grass was educated at Danzig Volksschule and Gymnasium, and went to art college after serving as a soldier in the Second World War, where he was held as a POW.
Grass trained as a sculptor and stonemason and has also worked as a jazz musician and political speechwriter for the mayor of Berlin.
The publication of The Tin Drum catapulted Grass to the forefront of European fiction. Since that novel his work has moved from fantastical symbolism towards political activism. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999.
Gunter Grass lives in Germany
ISMAIL KADARE
Ismail Kadare was born in 1936 in the Albanian mountain town of Girokaster near the Greek border. He is Albania’s best-known poet and novelist. He established an uneasy modus vivendi with the Communist authorities until their attempts to turn his reputation to their advantage drove him in October 1990 to seek asylum in France.
Ismail Kadare lives in France
MILAN KUNDERA
Milan Kundera was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia in 1929. He was a student when the Czech Communist regime was established in 1948. He later worked as a labourer, jazz musician and professor at the Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies in Prague. After the Russian invasion in August 1968, his books were proscribed. In 1975, he and his wife settled in France, and in 1981, he became a French citizen.
Milan Kundera lives in France
STANISLAW LEM
Born in 1921 in Lvov, Poland, Stanislaw Lem is the author of novels, short stories, literary criticism, philosophy, parodies and screenplays. Lem is the recipient of many literary awards, most notably the State Prize for Literature in Poland 1976 and the Austrian State Award for European Literature 1985.
Stanislaw Lem lives in Austria
Article comments
1 - Aaman
What a fine list of novelists - one notes the absence of Salman Rushdie.
Finalists I think, will be:
Saul Bellow
Gunther Grass
Doris Lessing
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
John Updike,
For the winner, I propose Senor Marquez
Beautiful book covers, Eric
2 - Rodney Welch
So the Booker people pony up cash for one more useless literary award, a lifetime achievement honor to one of a host of usual suspects. Who cares?
3 - Aaman
Actually the money will come from the Man group, one of the largest hedge-fund outfits around. These awards are no more 'booker' than a hooker.
I guess this will become a second-chance Nobel Prize
4 - Eric Olsen
I would say the legitimacy of something like this is taht for most people on earth, the "usual suspects" are hardly household names, even if some are in many quarters, and anything that draws attention to fine literature for the general public can only be a good and worthwhile thing. Just putting this together, I kept saying "Damn, I should read more of these people."
5 - Rodney Welch
"Most people on earth" don't care and prizes like this aren't going to make them care -- which is fine; there's no reason they should. All awards are just p.r., more than anything; this one is superfluous besides.
6 - Eric Olsen
but some are influenced and educated by them and that is their value. PR isn't a bad thing, per se.
7 - Rodney Welch
Well fine -- let's have a "Best Male Writer Past the Age of 60" Award. A "Best Living Female Author Award." A "Best Young Female Writer With the Nicest Can" award. A "Best Novel Sold to Hollywood" award. A "Best Novel That Will Never Be Sold to Hollywood" award. A "Best Non-Fiction Asian Writer Living in America" award. A"Best Writer Who Has Never Been in My Kitchen" award. Then we can all just sit back as people throw out their video games and disconnect their TiVO's and pour into a headlong mad rush to the local B&N, tumbling ass over elbows to get to a classic re-issue of "Henderson the Rain King." Then they'll all go home, read to page 4, put it on their shelf, talk about how great it is at cocktail parties, and we can all be thankful for the enormous boost in literacy. Yeah right.
8 - Eric Olsen
that was a bit cynical, don't you think Rodney? I vote for the "Best Young Female Writer With the Nicest Can" award.
9 - Maggie Cohen
I vote for A.B.Yehoshua,for the impact of his work.