Stockholm, Dec 06: Despite "dissonant sounds" about his Jewish heritage, Nobel literature prize winner Imre Kertesz said that he encountered love and appreciation in his native Hungary after winning the prestigious award.
"I have been very warmly received in all countries. They haven't much gone into my Jewish background," the 72-year-old holocaust survivor said after arriving in the Swedish capital yesterday to collect the USD one million award.
"In Hungary, I have been met with a lot of love, but you know also how many dissonant sounds that can occur in such circumstances," he said. "Some have expressed the opinion that if a Jew receives awards, it's an insult to Hungary."
Kertesz, a survivor of the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps, has often criticized his native country for failing to confront its past, particularly the deportation of 600,000 Hungarian Jews during World War II.
The Swedish academy, which awards the literature prize, cited his life's work, including the novel "Fateless," which deals with a young boy's experience of life in Auschwitz.



Comparing the award to the Himalayas, Kertesz said, "I must now just write ... Back to earth in a small room and keep writing."



He said he was working on a novel he hopes to finish in six months. "That is my life. Every day I write. Without writing I have no identity," he said.



Kertesz is set to deliver the traditional Nobel lecture to the Swedish academy tomorrow and receive the award from King Carl XVI Gustaf on Tuesday.


Bureau Report