Polish author receives Italian literary award

FILIP SINGER/PAP/EPA

Polish author and Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk has received the 'La storia in un romanzo 2020' award at the Italian Pordenonelegge Literary Festival, according to the Wroclaw.pl web portal.

The portal said in the jury's opinion, Tokarczuk touches on important problems of the modern world, such as feminism, animal rights and harm to minorities.

Olga Tokarczuk was honoured for her "out-of-the-box, wonderful and surprising" novels, and for introducing historical themes to belles-lettres. The jury emphasised that her novels teach that "change is always more noble than stability."

When collecting the award, the Nobel laureate said this distinction shows that literature works. "What I wrote miles away in the forests of the north of Poland is suddenly understood, appreciated in the south of Italy, and readers are able to understand what I have been trying to express in my own language, different to yours."

The 'La storia in un romanzo 2020' award has been awarded for 13 years to the best writers and journalists, authors of contemporary prose.

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