The Nobel for Literature was awarded in 2009 to Romanian-born German novelist Herta Müller, "who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed," the Swedish Academy said in a statement. She was the 12th woman to win the prize.
The Monitor wrote at the time: "Müller is a courageous figure whose own life has much in common with that of her fictional works. She was born in Romania in 1953 into a family that made up part of Romania's German-speaking minority." Among her most-noted works is the novel "Herztier" (published in English as "The Land of Green Plums"), which focuses on five Romanian youths and their lives under the Ceausescu regime.
