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Coetzee wins Nobel Prize for literature
(CNN) -- J.M. Coetzee, the author of such novels as "Disgrace" and "Age of Iron" and teller of tales about innocents, outcasts and the weight of history, has been awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize for literature, the Swedish Academy said Thursday. The 63-year-old writer, long a favored contender, was tapped for the prestigious award for his ability to write stories that "in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider." The quiet and retiring Coetzee (pronounced kut-SEE-uh) said he was stunned by the news, which he received at the University of Chicago, where he teaches. "I received the news in a phone call from Stockholm at 6 a.m. It came as a complete surprise -- I was not even aware that the announcement was pending," Coetzee said in a statement. Horace Engdahl, the academy's permanent secretary, said the organization had little trouble in deciding to honor Coetzee. "We were very much convinced of the lasting value of his contribution to literature. I'm not speaking of the number of books, but the variety, and the very high average quality," he said, according to The Associated Press. "I think he is a writer ... that will continue to be discussed and analyzed and we think he should belong to our literary heritage." Coetzee is the second South African to win the prize since 1990. In 1991, Nadine Gordimer won the award, not long before the fall of apartheid. Both are white writers from the predominantly black country. "He's a colleague and a friend, and it's also a wonderful thing that the Nobel Prize has come to South Africa again," Gordimer told the AP. The African National Congress, the country's dominant political party and the leader in the fight to bring down apartheid, issued a statement Thursday praising the selection. "The ANC hopes the recognition given to South African authors like Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer ... will serve as an inspiration to young writers in this country and on the African continent," it said. "We also hope that it will encourage publishers and readers to realize the continent's vast untapped literary potential." John Maxwell Coetzee, the son of a sheep farmer, was born in Cape Town in 1940. In 1960, after the Sharpville shootings -- in which police fired on demonstrators and 70 people were killed -- he left the country for a decade, according to the AP. He worked for IBM in England and earned a doctorate from the University of Texas in Austin. The author also has been honored with two Booker Prizes: for his 1983 book "Life and Times of Michael K" and his 1999 work "Disgrace." His new book, "Elizabeth Costello," is due October 16 in the United States. He has written eight novels and a number of essays and other works. "There is a great wealth of variety in Coetzee's works," the academy citation said. "No two books ever follow the same recipe. Extensive reading reveals a recurring pattern, the downward-spiraling journeys he considers necessary for the salvation of his characters." Explaining his themes in a 1990 interview with the AP, Coetzee said, "Our history is such that all of a sudden ordinary people are confronted with major decisions in a way that ordinary people are usually not faced by. "I think South Africa in the past 40 years has been a place where people have been faced with really huge, moral debts." In the next week, the academy will announce the winners of prizes in medicine, physics, chemistry, economics and peace. The prizes always are presented December 10, the anniversary of founder Alfred Nobel's death in 1896. The Nobel Prize includes a cash award of 10 million kronor, or about $1.3 million. Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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