Coetzee's publishers 'thrilled'
2003-10-02 14:38
Johannesburg - South African author JM Coetzee's publishers said on Thursday they were "very excited and thrilled" that he had been awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature.
The prize awarded by the Swedish Academy to 63 year-old John Maxwell Coetzee, comes with incalculable prestige and a purse of $1.3m.
Stephen Johnson, MD of Random House SA, which distributes his books - which are published by the same company in the United Kingdom - said: "For the author there is extraordinary prestige being a Nobel Laureate. The man is a genius. He says so much with so few words."
Johnson said Coetzee relocated to Australia some time ago and apart from this latest accolade, had also won Britain's premier literary honour, the Booker Prize.
Coetzee joins Nadine Gordimer in winning the prize. She took the accolade in 1991.
- SAPA