Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Nobel Prize winner writes sci-fi?

This is topic Nobel Prize winner writes sci-fi? in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Doc Brown (Member # 1118) on :

A co-worker was giving away a bunch of books from his collection. I noticed that one of them said "Nobel Prize for Literature" on the cover so I snatched it up.

Seven pages into José Saramago's The Cave I have judged it to be a science fiction novel. I find this surprising. Who expects a Nobel prize winner from Portugal to publish science fiction?

Saramago published The Cave in 2000, he won the Nobel for literature in 1998.

Maybe I am wrong, maybe The Cave is not a science fiction novel. But so far the fictional setting he calls "The Center" seems an awful lot like Perdido Street Station . . .

I'll let you know how things develop in the book. In the mean time, anyone else know of a speculative fiction author who has received similar acclaim?

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

I've glanced through the list of Nobel Prize for Literature winners in my almanac, and I know of works by four writers on it that I would out-and-out identify as science fiction. There may be others. Many more have written overt fantasy or horror.