Herta Mueller,a member of Romanias ethnic German minority who was persecuted for her critical depictions of life behind the Iron Curtain won the 2009 Nobel Prize in literature Thursday in an award seen as a nod to the 20th anniversary of communisms collapse • 56-year-old Mueller made her debut in 1982 with a collection of short stories titled Niederungen,or Nadirs,depicting the harshness of life in a small,German-speaking village in Romania. It was censored by the Communist government. • In 84 an uncensored version was smuggled to Germany,where it was published,devoured by readers. • This was followed by Oppressive Tango in Romania followed,but she was eventually prohibited from publishing inside her country for her criticism of dictator Nicolae Ceausescus rule. • Her father served in the Waffen SS during WW II. She is the third European to win the prize in a row and the 10th German,joining Gunter Grass in 99 and Heinrich Boell in 72. • Mueller emigrated to Germany with her husband in 87,two years before Ceausescu was toppled from power amid the widening Communist collapse across east Europe. • Most of her work is in German,but some have been translated into English,French and Spanish,including The Passport,The Land of Green Plums,Traveling on One Leg and The Appointment. • Mueller is the 12th woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature. Recent female winners include Austrias Elfriede Jelinek in 2004 and British writer Doris Lessing in 2007. • The prize includes a 10 million kronor ($1.4 million) prize and will be handed out Dec. 10 in the Swedish capital. • She was honoured for work that with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose,depicts the landscape of the dispossessed,the Swedish Academy said.
