Nobel Prize

Read the excerpts from The Passport (Der Mensch ist ein großer Fasan auf der Welt) English Excerpts from The Passport THE POT HOLE Around the war memorial are roses. They form a thicket. So overgrown that they suffocate the grass. Their blooms are white, rolled tight like paper. They rustle. Dawn is breaking.…

English Excerpt from The Grass is Singing MURDER MYSTERY By Special Correspondent Mary Turner, wife of Richard Turner, a farmer at Ngesi, was found murdered on the front veranda of their homestead yester­day morning. The houseboy, who has been arrested, has con­fessed to the crime. No motive has been discovered. It is thought he was…

Swedish Utdrag ur Gräset sjunger MYSTISKT MORD Av tidningens specielle medarbetare Mary Turner, hustru till lantbrukaren Richard Turner i Ngesi, hittades i går morse mördad på verandan till sitt hem. Familjens houseboy, som erkänt sig skyldig till brottet, har arresterats. Motivet har ännu icke klarlagts. Man förmodar att han försökt komma över värdeföremål. Det stod…

Spanish Excerpt from El Hablador Conocí la selva amazónica a mediados de 1958, gracias a mi amiga Rosita Corpancho. Sus funciones en la Universidad de San Marcos eran inciertas; su poder, inconmensurable. Merodeaba entre los profesores sin ser uno de ellos y todos hacían lo que Rosita les pedía; gracias a sus…

English Excerpt from The Storyteller I FIRST became acquainted with the Amazon jungle halfway through 1958, thanks to my friend Rosita Corpancho. Her function at the University of San Marcos was vague; her power unlimited. She prowled among the professors without being one of them, and they all did whatever she asked; thanks to her…

Loot Once upon our time, there was an earthquake: but this one is the most powerful ever recorded since the invention of the Richter scale made possible for us to measure apocalyptic warnings. It tipped a continental shelf. These tremblings often cause floods; this colossus did the reverse, drew back the ocean…

English Excerpt from Cien años de soledad Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía había de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo. Macondo era entonces una aldea de veinte casas de barro y cañabrava construidas a la orilla de un río de…

English Excerpt from One Hundred Years of Solitude Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. At that time Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses, built on the bank of a river of clear water…

English Excerpts from The Piano Teacher (Pages 3–5 and 120–121) The piano teacher, Erika Kohut, bursts like a whirlwind into the apartment she shares with her mother. Mama likes calling Erika her little whirlwind, for the child can be an absolute speed demon. She is trying to escape her mother. Erika is in her late…

German Auszug von Die Klavierspielerin (Seite 7–8 und 108–110) Die Klavierlehrerin Erika Kohut stürzt wie ein Wirbelsturm in die Wohnung, die sie mit ihrer Mutter teilt. Die Mutter nennt Erika gern ihren kleinen Wirbelwind, denn das Kind bewegt sich manchmal extrem geschwind. Es trachtet danach, der Mutter zu entkommen. Erika geht auf das Ende der…