A Nobel for Tales of Tyranny

The Swedish Academy's pick for the prize surprised many who expected it to go to an American instead of a European writer this year. Philip Roth and Joyce Carol Oates had been considered favorites. Many saw the selection of the relatively obscure Ms. Müller also as an acknowledgement of the 20th anniversary of the fall of Communism.

Speaking at a press conference in Berlin, Ms. Müller, 56 years old, said she was still in a state of disbelief since learning the news at her home Thursday morning. "I know it, but I still don't believe it," she said. The prize, she added, wasn't so much about her "but about the books."

Her life's work, she said, has been to explore the effects of totalitarianism and repression on humanity. She said she counted herself not among writers "who pick a theme but the kind who has one happen to them."

Much of her work, written in her German mother tongue, is shaped by her experience as an ethnic minority. Ms. Müller grew up as part of Romania's German-speaking community, descendants of Germans encouraged to settle the eastern fringes of the Habsburg empire in the 18th century. Her latest novel "Atemschaukel," published this year and translated as "Everything I Possess, I Carry with Me," depicts the exile of German Romanians in the Soviet Union.

Ms. Müller, a critic of Romania's totalitarian regime, left the country for Germany in 1987 after being censored and, she says, repeatedly threatened by its secret police. But she continued to wrestle with themes of oppression and exile in her work.

The impact of the Nobel award was felt immediately. On Thursday at 7 a.m. Eastern time, "The Land of Green Plums" ranked No. 56,359 on Amazon.com Inc.'s list of best sellers; by 11:30 a.m., it was No. 47, and around 5:30 p.m., it was No. 7.

Sara Bershtel, publisher of Metropolitan Books, which published "The Land of Green Plums" and "The Appointment," said that Ms. Müller's books create an atmosphere of suspicion that becomes increasingly intense. "Her work is very concentrated, very spare." Metropolitan Books is now reprinting both titles.

"Her work is a little dense for American readers, because it is so layered," said Philip Boehm, who co-translated "The Appointment" and has translated numerous German and Polish works into English. "The books are more atmospheric than plot driven, and she focuses on the psychology of her characters and the surrounding environment."

Ms. Müller said she didn't anticipate that becoming a Nobel laureate would stifle her literary ambitions. "Every time I finish a book, I say never again," she said, "and two years later I start writing again."

Winning Work

Four of Herta Müller's best- known novels, with English publication dates

The Passport (1989)

In a Romanian village under Nicolae Ceausescu's dictatorship, residents dream of the West and seek to flee.

The Land of Green Plums (1996)

Young people try to carve out some sense of humanity under a strict regime.

The Appointment (2001)

This portrait of a young woman working in a clothes factory offers sketches of daily life in a soulless dictatorship.

Everything I Possess, I Carry With Me

(not published yet in English) A depiction of the exile of German Romanians, an ethnic minority, in the Soviet Union.