New Delhi: With the announcement of the Nobel Prize in literature just days away, speculation over this year's winner is rife in Stockholm's literary circles where Philip Roth, Amos Oz, Adonis and Mario Vargas Llosa are all tipped as favourites.
In line with tradition, the Nobel committees remain tight-lipped on their leanings in the run-up to the announcements, prompting wild speculation about who will be this year’s lucky winner.
The literature prize is the only Nobel whose announcement date is not given in advance, the Swedish Academy only revealing the big day 48 hours ahead of time.
When Alfred Nobel, who died at 63 in 1896, made provision for the prizes in his 1895 will, the language outlining the criteria for the literary prize was a little obscure.
The prize, he said, should go "to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction."
Some of the glaring omissions that critics have pointed out are Leo Tolstoy, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Franz Kafka and Marcel Proust.
And on the other side, there were some authors who refused the world's most coveted writing award – Boris Pasternak and Jean-Paul Sartre.
Sartre declined the award on grounds that he had always refused official honours and didn't wish to align himself with institutions.
All prizes are handed out in Stockholm except for the peace prize, which is presented in Oslo.
(With inputs from agencies)
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