The Swedish Academy gave the award to French memoirist Annie Ernaux. An icon of autobiographical fiction, the author of "The Years" joins the ranks of other prestigious figures in the literary scene.
The novelist and translator was believed to be the most likely to win a Nobel Prize for Literature in Spain. His 16 novels were translated into 46 languages.
The Nobel Prize winner talks with DW about his decision to leave Zanzibar, to write in English, and about the rise of African writers in the post-colonial era.
As the Nobel ceremony takes place in Stockholm, here's more on Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah's works, which explore the effects of colonialism and the fate of refugees.