World Books: Herta Müller, Memory, and the Nobel

Now that the predictable “who is she?” brouhaha over this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize for literature has ended, it is time to explore the artistry of Herta Müller, whose books consistently denounce the corruption of language and memory, often by reworking her own past experiences in innovative, lyrical, and evocative prose. By Tess Lewis Herta Müller: Her books are beautifully written, but they do not make for pleasant reading. Suffering under totalitarianism’s perverted ideal