John Maxwell Coetzee, whose novels and essays are characterized by ableak（荒凉的, 凄凉的）vision of his racially divided homeland, is the second South African author to win the Nobel Prize. Nadine Gordimer received the award in 1991.

Mr. Coetzee was the first writer to win Britain's prestigiousBooker Prize（布克奖）twice, first forThe Life and Times of Michael K（《麦可·K 的生命与时代》）in 1983 and, again, forDisgrace（《耻》） in 1999.

But the publicity-shy author has long been skittish about the attention of the media and stayed away from the awards ceremony on both occasions.

Mr. Coetzee's main characters are often innocents oroutcasts（被遗弃的）who are overwhelmed by historical forces over which they have no influence. South Africa's formerapartheid（种族隔离）system of separating the races is a recurring theme in his works.

The Swedish Academy praised Mr. Coetzee for his intellectual honesty, noting that the 63-year-old author has been, in its words, ruthless in his criticism of the cruel rationalism and cosmetic morality in western civilization.

The academy, in announcing the .3 million award, also noted that, although Mr. Coetzee makes the distinction between right and wrongcrystal clear（极其明白, 十分清楚）, he also portrays it as being ultimately pointless.

Mr. Coetzee was born inCape Town（开普敦）to an English-speaking family of Afrikaaner background. Though he has spent most of his life in South Africa, he studied and worked in the United States and Britain and emigrated to Australia two years ago.

His novels includeWaiting for the Barbarians（《等待野蛮人》）andDusklands（《幽暗之乡》）as well as his latest work of fiction,Elizabeth Costello（《伊丽莎白．克丝泰洛》）. He has also written essays on such topics as rugby and censorship.

The literature prize is the first of the Nobels to be awarded this year. In the days ahead, the Swedish Academy will announce the winners of the medicine, physics, chemistry and economics prizes. On October 10, the Norwegian Academy will announce the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

note:

Booker Prize：布克奖，Booker是英国最大的现购批发商，英国出版名人马斯开尔TomMaschler找到这个企业赞助，成立了一项鼓励文学创作的奖项，奖励当年度最佳英文小说创作。