The Nobel Prize committee has announced that Mo Yan of China has been chosen as the winner of 2012 Nobel prize in literature. He is a school drop-out, who quit schooling during the days of ‘cultural revolution’ and joined people’s liberation army at the age of 20.
The prize is worth about $1.2 million.
His real name is Guan Moye. He adopted pen name ‘Mo Yan’ which translates as ‘don’t speak’ in Chinese.
The committee announced the prize motivation describing Mo Yan as one:
“who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary”
His two important books are: Red Sorghum and The Garlic Ballads. He is considered as Franz Kafka of the East.
Time magazine had described him as “one of the most famous, oft-banned and widely pirated of all Chinese writers”
This award has come as a surprise for many. Japanese author Haruki Murakami and Canadian author Alice Munro were the favourites to win this prize this year.
