Nobel Prize in Literature Awarded to journalist Svetlana Alexievich

... Ms. Alexievich said she was at home, ironing clothes, when she received the phone call from the Swedish academy.

“It’s an incredibly complex sentiment,” she told Swedish television SVT. “On the one side, it’s such a fantastic feeling but it’s also disturbing.”

At a news conference Thursday in Minsk at the cramped offices of the independent newspaper Nasha Niva, Ms. Alexievich said “It’s not just an award for me, but for our culture, our small country.” The writer said she had been congratulated by a senior Russian official but had heard nothing from Belarusian authorities.

“Belarusian authorities act like I don’t exist,” she said.

Ms. Alexievich’s books weave together the voices of hundreds of interview subjects in exploring the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan and the experience of Soviet women who were on the front lines during World War II. They are part of an expansive project called “Voices of Utopia.” ...