Herta Müller wins Nobel Prize for literature

Romanian-born author Herta Müller has won the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature. She is well known in Eastern Europe and currently lives in Germany.

Quill & Quire says only four of the Nobel winner's works have been translated into English. The BBC says Müller's books focus on life in Romania when Nicolae Ceausescu was the country's leader, between 1974 and 1989. A collection of short stories, Niederungen, (Nadirs) was her first published work. The book was censored in Romania but was smuggled out of the country and two years later it was published in Germany. At the same time, Müller's first novel Druckender Tango was published. The difficulties Romanians faced during Ceausescu's regime are detailed in her work. The themes of corruption, intolerance and repression play a major role in her writing. Müller's The Land Of The Green Plums won the German Kleist as well as and the Irish IMPAC award , the richest literary prize in the world.