As has been the case since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature will be awarded again this year, with the date set for early October by the Swedish committee. Just a few hours ago, the betting company Ladbrokes began publishing a list of potential favorites for the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature , suggesting who will succeed the most recent winner, Ukrainian Svetlana Alexievich .
Late rewards
After analyzing the list of possible candidates for the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature published today by the betting house Ladbrokes, we find the presence of some authors who are already recurring on this list, whose reasons for winning the prize allude to their career, narrative richness or the need for a belated recognition by the organization promoted by Alfred Nobel at the beginning of the 20th century.
Ladbrokes has compiled a list in which Haruki Murakami is the favorite , as he is almost every year. The most well-known Japanese author of our time, thanks to works like 1Q84, Kafka on the Shore, and my personal favorite so far, South of the Border, West of the Sun, is a perennial contender on unofficial lists of Nobel Prize in Literature favorites.
Second place goes to Kenyan Ngugi Wa Thiong'o , whose book, Decolonizing the Mind, I happened to receive yesterday. Thiong'o is one of Kenya's most renowned novelists and thinkers, given his consistent advocacy for the cultivation of arts, language, and literature in Gikuyu, Kenya's native language.
The third name on the list is Philip Roth , a writer whose work explores the adaptation of Jews in the United States, a theme of which his "American Trilogy", composed of American Pastoral, I Married a Communist and The Human Stain, is confirmed as a cornerstone of his career.
Albanian writer Ismail Kadare ranks fourth. Winner of the Prince of Asturias and Booker Prizes, Kadare stands out internationally for his Kafkaesque portrayals of his country of origin after World War II, particularly during the Kosovo War.
The fifth name on the list is Joyce Carol Oates , a writer of ambiguous styles whose concepts encompass the gothic and violent atmospheres of the American underworld.
Since the list results are constantly changing, these five names remain at the top of a podium from which, for the moment, other great names in literature such as Salman Rushdie, Don DeLillo or Milan Kundera are emerging.
Despite placing our trust in a list drawn up by a bookmaker (of great renown on the other hand), it is also true that in the weeks before the Nobel was awarded the conjectures are many in the absence of an official list of nominees.
As expected, multiculturalism is more than present in this year's awards, although the late reward for an established writer is not something new in a contest in which there are many factors to take into account.
UPDATED: The 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced on Thursday, October 13. We'll be waiting with bated breath.
Who would you give the award to?