Swiss author Kracht tipped for Nobel Prize for Literature

Nobel Prize for Literature: Swiss Christian Kracht among the favourites Keystone-SDA

Swiss author Christian Kracht is in pole position to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, says the Swedish press.

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As is the case every autumn, Nobel fever returns, particularly for literature, the most hotly debated of the prizes awarded by the Swedish Academy. The announcement this year is expected on October 9.

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The assumption that 58-year-old Christian Kracht, one of the most acclaimed authors on the contemporary German-language literary scene, could win the Nobel Prize for Literature was reinforced after his recent appearance at the Göteborg Book Fair in Sweden, where – not unnoticed – several members of the Swedish Academy were spotted in the front row during his speech.

A sign that, for some experts in Swedish literary circles, should be interpreted as almost “prophetic”. “It’s usually a sure sign”, commented Björn Wiman, cultural critic for the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter.

A perfect synthesis

After rewarding the South Korean writer Han Kang in 2024, Wiman believes that this year the Academy could once again favour “a white man from the Anglo-Saxon, German-speaking or French-speaking world”. In this context, Christian Kracht would represent the perfect synthesis: refined writing, a cosmopolitan style and a literary output that has intrigued and divided critics for years.

Born in Saanen in 1966, Kracht won the Swiss Book Prize (Schweizer Buchpreis) and the Hermann Hesse Literary Prize (Hermann-Hesse-Literaturpreis) in 2016 with Die Toten (The Dead, 2016), while his Imperium (2012) was a literary success and one of the best-selling books in Germany the year it was published.

Often described as a provocative author, Christian Kracht is able to defy convention and reinterpret the myths of Western culture with irony and depth.

Most of his books have been translated into French, most recently Eurotrash (2024). In German, he published Air this year.

Translated from French by DeepL/mga

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