The Romanian-born, German author Herta Müller has won the 2009 Nobel prize for literature, the award committee announced this afternoon.
The Swedish Academy, which decides the winner of the 10 million Swedish crown (€950,000) prize, recognised Müller for her ability to depict "the landscape of the dispossessed".
The Romanian-born writer has written tales of the disenfranchised and fought for free speech, the Academy said.
Müller, whose mother was sent to a Soviet work camp for five years and who herself was harassed by the Romanian secret police after refusing to be an informer, made her debut in 1982 with a collection of short stories.
That work,
Niederungen, was censored in Romania. In it, and in her book
Drueckender Tango (Oppressive Tango)published two years later, she wrote about corruption and repression in a German-speaking village in Romania.
Her works reflect her experiences growing up in Romania under dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, whose rule came to an end in 1989 when he was executed.
The nationality of this year's award has been more closely watched than usual after comments last year by former Academy Permanent Secretary Horace Engdahl that Americans did not participate in literature's "big dialogue".
Some critics had speculated that the committee might chose an American to make up for bruised feelings.
All but one of the prizes were established in the will of 19th century dynamite tycoon Alfred Nobel and have been handed out since 1901. The economics award was established by Sweden's central bank in 1968.