Janet Frame has been passed over again and this year's Nobel Prize for literature has gone to South African J.M. Coetzee.
Dunedin-based Frame had been tipped as a leading candidate for the $2.2 million prize.
In its citation, the Swedish Academy said John Maxwell Coetzee's novels were characterised by their well-crafted composition,
pregnant dialogue and analytical brilliance.
"But at the same time, he is a scrupulous doubter, ruthless in his criticism of the cruel rationalism and cosmetic morality of Western civilisation."
The 217-year-old Swedish Academy makes the annual selection in secret and nominees are not revealed publicly for 50 years, leaving the literary world to guess who was in the running.
However, many of the same critically acclaimed authors are believed to be on the short-list every year. Frame, who is 79 and acclaimed as New Zealand's greatest living writer, was reportedly one of the five finalists. She was also short-listed in 1998.
The prize includes more than 10 million kronor ($2.18 million), but it also bestows increased sales, celebrity and admiration.
Works by Coetzee, who is 63, include Dusklands and Disgrace, which won the 1999 Booker Prize, the second time he won that award.
"There is a great wealth of variety in Coetzee's works," the academy said in its citation.
"No two books ever follow the same recipe. Extensive reading reveals a recurring pattern, the downward spiralling journeys he considers necessary for the salvation of his characters."
A South African also won the prize in 1991, when it went to Nadine Gordimer.
- NZPA
Previous winners of Nobel Prize for Literature
