Voice of the Dispossessed

German writer Herta Mueller, whose work has dealt with the hardships and humiliations of life in an oppressive dictatorship, was awarded the Nobel prize in literature Thursday.
The Romanian-born Mueller, 56, was recognized by the Swedish Academy as a writer who "with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed."
Mueller made her writing debut at 29 after she was dismissed from her job as a translator at a machine factory. She had refused to be an informant for the secret police in Romania.
Her first book, a collection of short stories called "Niederungen," was censored in Romania upon its release in 1982.
The stories in the book and subsequent ones depict a stagnant life in a small town under a politically corrupt regime.
In "The Appointment," a woman in a clothes factory is hauled in for interrogation after she is caught sewing notes into men's suits bound for Italy, with the message "Marry Me."
In "The Land of Green Plums," the young narrator recounts a policeman who gulps down unripened plums from the city's trees, a symbol of power and greed.
Soon after she started writing, her works were panned inside Romania but positively received in the German press.
Mueller was prohibited from publishing in Romania for criticizing the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu.
She was relentlessly harassed and threatened by the secret police, forcing her to emigrate to Germany in 1987 with her husband, author Richard Wagner. - CNN.com
.
Photo location: Bang Saphan Noi, Prachuabkhirikan province