2024 Nobel Prize Winner

     That prize winner would be Han ( that's not a mistype of Hans, for you Norwegians) Kang, who is Korean. She's the first Korean to win the prize. It was awarded in 2024, for her work prior to Greek Lessons, which I just finished. My friend, Peter, who is reading many of the books awarded the Nobel, claims that some are not as good as the previous works of the award winner. Not having read her previous works I can't judge, but this one is superb.

    This is a book for lovers of language. It's set in both Germany and Korea. One protagonist teaches and the other studies Greek. Their interest in Greek and their maladies bring them together. Some have described the book as poetry and that certainly is fair. In many ways it's a sad book but throughout there is a current of hope. Letters are written to unknown person that reveal the innermost character of the writer. Kang has the ability of acute observation. NPR quotes this passage as an example of her power of observation, "The man standing by the blackboard looks to be in his mid to late thirties. He is slight, with eyebrows like bold accents over his eyes and a deep groove at the base of his nose. A faint smile of restrained emotion plays around his mouth...The woman gazes up at the scar that runs in a slender pale curve from the edge of his left eyelid to the edge of his mouth. When she'd seen it in their first lesson, she'd thought of it as marking where tears had once flowed."

    It's a short book, quickly read and some reviewers quickly reread it. Personally I found it engaging, compelling and profound. It did show me much how much of my own Greek lessons has been forgotten as I struggled to read the simple Greek in the book.

Takk for alt,

Al