Nobel Prize slipped right through Sviatlana Alexievich’s fingers

Just before the winners were announced Belarusan writer got to the top of the list according to the highly reputable betting shop Ladbrokes.

However, the Swedish Academy announced today that the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Alice Munro, 82, for her short stories, which focus on the frailties of the human condition.

The literature prize is considered to be the most expected and popular among all five Nobel prizes. The Peace Noble Prize laureate will be announced on Friday, October 11.

All the prizes are traditionally presented to the winners in a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel (1833-1896). Laureates receive a diploma, medal and around eight million Swedish kronor (920,000 euros, $1.25 million).

Alice Munro has been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature as a “master of the contemporary short story." The Swedish Academy said she is considered by critics as the "Canadian Chekhov”, reports Deutsche Welle.

"Her texts often feature depictions of everyday but decisive events, epiphanies of a kind, that illuminate the surrounding story and let existential questions appear in a flash of lightning," the Academy said. Her works include, "Who Do You Think You Are?" (1978), "The Moons of Jupiter" (1982), "Runaway" (2004), "The View from Castle Rock" (2006) and "Too Much Happiness" (2009). Her most recent collection is "Dear Life" (2012).

According to the bookmaking firm Ladbrokes, Belarusian writer Sviatlana Alexievich led betting charts several hours before the announcement of Nobel Prize laureate. Entries for her are accepted under the coefficient 4 to 6.

As Euroradio reports, Sviatlana Alexievich made it to the top 3 of the Nobel Prize in Literature favourites on October 8. At that moment, the bookmakers preferred Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. According to bookmakers, Canada's Alice Munro, American Joyce Carol Oates and Hungary's Peter Nadas also have the best chances to win.

Sviatlana Alexievich has congratulated winner Alice Munro, though she hasn't read her books: "I've been told about this, I am very happy and would like to congratulate the winner. This is a fair play and my attitude to this is like the one of any normal person. There are things you cannot influence. I don't think about this at various awards. I accept life as it is”, - she is quoted saying.

Sviatlana Alexievich was born in 1948. Her debut novel The Unwomanly Face of the War, published in 1983, was a success. Other well-known books by the author are The Boys of Zinc (about the Afghan war), Chernobyl Prayer (about the consequences of the Chernobyl tragedy), and The Second-Hand Time. Let us also recall that this year the Board of Trustees of the Peace Prize of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association has awarded its 2013 peace prize to her. Sviatlana Alexievich used detailed witness interviews and other research material to write on historical topics from the Second World War right through to Belarus under President Alexander Lukashenko.