The price of Peter Handke's controversial book has skyrocketed

Peter Handke did not utter words when he faced television cameras yesterday after being chased by journalists for a week. The author has received widespread criticism for his position on the Serbian side during the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s since it became known that he was awarded the Nobel Prize.

In his outburst, Handke said, among other things, that he hates journalists and that none of them seems to have read his books.

And possibly Handke is partly right when he finds that no one has read his books. In any case, the book that has been blamed for containing controversial positions on the Yugoslav wars: the essay book Eine winterliche Reise zu den Flüssen Danube, Save, Morawa and Drina or Gerechtigkeit für Serbia, in English A journey to the rivers: Justice for Serbia namely, very difficult to get hold of.

The book was first published in 1996 and was never translated into Swedish. On the web, however, there are English editions of the 20-year-old book to buy on various sales sites. But it costs. The price starts at a few thousand dollars and extends up to SEK 17,000.

On the US e-commerce site Amazon, there are currently four copies of the book. The used ones cost around SEK 10,000 and a brand new copy costs just over SEK 14,000. This is a substantial increase from SEK 1,300, which is what a new copy of the book was sold for on Amazon in 2016. A used version could be obtained for just over twenty that year.

Some who were quick to buy a copy before the book price skyrocketed were the librarians at SVT's and SR's joint library. They bought the book for just over SEK 800 the day after Handke was presented as this year's Nobel Laureate.

"It seems to be a rarity," says librarian Martin Herterich.

At the beginning of November, Albert Bonnier's publisher will receive the Nobel Prize for this year's winner. But among Handke's five books to be reprinted, the mentioned book is not included.

"We have to make a selection and there was never any talk of publishing that book because it does not belong to Peter Handke's central work - it is not the one for which he receives the Nobel Prize," says Daniel Sandström, literary director at Bonnier.

But the demand for the book seems huge as the price of the internet has gone up several thousand, does it not affect your decision?

- Oh, I didn't know the price had gone up that much. But no, it will not change our selection, he says.