Romanian authors congratulate Herta Mueller for Nobel Prize

Romanian authors congratulate Herta Mueller for Nobel Prize Bucharest - German-Romanian author Herta Mueller, winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature, was congratulated by Romanian literary compatriots on Thursday.

"To me, Herta Mueller has long been a Nobel Prize winner. So I can only be happy that my premonition has been officially confirmed," said Andrei Plesu, a Romanian philosopher and art historian.

"I admire Herta Mueller's perfect mix of talent, human and political responsibility, as well as the ethical memory that is to be found in her books," Plesu told German Press Agency dpa.

"For years, Romanians have been sad that there is no Romanian Nobel laureate. Now they can calm down," Plesu continued, adding that Mueller, a German national of Romanian origin, incorporated Romanian and East European history in her writing.

Romanian poet Mircea Dinescu said Mueller deserved recognition for being a "tragic representative of literature from the Wild East," and an "activist of suffering."

Mueller, the poet said, had been "expelled from the world she was born into." During the communist era, Dinescu himself was pursued as an opponent of the state.

Dinescu said that for Mueller, writing was a "medicine" and a "weapon of survival."

He said her work, borne of suffering, reminded him of a comment once made by fellow poet Nichita Stanescu to Romania's communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu: "We are activists of suffering."

This attribute, he said, also fitted to Mueller - in the best possible way.

Mueller's Nobel Prize is likely to intensify a row between rival Romanian publishing houses Polirom and Humanitas, both of whom want to publish her latest novel - about the Soviet gulags - which came out in Germany this year.

Bogdan Stanescu of Polirom publishing house, which has published three previous books of hers, was pleased about the award.

"We had not expected it, but we had been waiting for it," he said of Mueller's Nobel Prize.

Stanescu said Mueller was popular in Romania, comparable to icons such as American author Philip Roth.

Mueller's Bucharest-based literary agent Simona Kessler said her latest novel, provisionally entitled "Everything I Own, I Carry With Me," had an initial print run of 3,000 - which she said was "highly respectable" for the genre in Romania. (dpa)