The winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2020 will be announced today at 13.00. But, this time, after the sex scandals that blew the 2018 edition, the double award in 2019 to Olga Tokarczuk and the disputed Peter Handke, the prestigious award of the Royal Swedish Academy will have to deal with Covid 19. The Nobel Prize in the era of the pandemic will inevitably have a smaller audience when the winner is announced in Sweden and even for those who were not used to it, all that remains is to follow him on Nobelprize.org.
And the handover ceremony at the Concert Hall, on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death, will not be able to have the usual celebrations and should be replaced by a television broadcast.
The prize money was instead increased by the Foundation to 10 million crowns, more or less 950 thousand euros.
And although it has always been an impossible task to guess who will be the winner, there is not the usual noise, a few days after the announcement, around the nominations.
The names, by regulation, are very secret, the super armored short list is as expected at the examination of the jurors, but the virus seems to have paralyzed the gossip and indiscretions.
To break the silence was the Sicilian writer Giovanna Giordano who announced that she had been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature 2020 from one of the four major universities of Sweden.
Author of three novels, all published by Marsilio: 'Thirty-six thousand days',' A magical flight 'and' The mystery of Lithian ', twice winner of the Racalmare Sciascia Award and the Andre' Gide International Journalism Award Media Award, the Giordano underlined: "Life is full of wonders. It always amazes you. Anything can happen. I am right to believe in the impossible. Books are like messages in a bottle. They travel and reach whoever they want".
An announcement that caused a bit of discussion also because for Italy it has always been thought that among the favorites there were masters of literature such as Claudio Magris and Dacia Maraini, but the Nobel has surprised us many times.
There is no indication of the favorites even from the full-bets.
Among the most persistent rumors circulating those that a woman could win are the names of Maryse Condè, the writer from Guadeloupe who in 2018 was awarded the New Academy Prize in Literature, the alternative Nobel Prize awarded in the absence of the traditional prize.
The one of the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood and of another Canadian, the poet Anne Carson, also returns.
And then the American Joyce Carol Oates, Marilynn Robinson and Joan Didion, the British Hilary Mantel and the French Annie Ernaux.
The timeless Haruki Murakami, the Kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong'o, the Spanish Javier Marias, the South Korean poet, jailed several times, Ko Un and the Israeli David Grossman could not miss in the swirl of names.
And there is also talk of the Frenchman Michel Houellebecq, the Czech naturalized Frenchman Milan Kundera and the American Stephen King.
