Olga Tokarczuk is the 2018 prize-winner in literature, but behind her are countless translators who have made her authorship available worldwide. She mentions the translation work of the Jacob books as particularly rewarding. In it, Olga Tokarczuk's Swedish translator Jan Henrik Swahn played an important role.

- It was fantastic when the James books were to be translated. The translators formed their own small group online where they discussed the translation of the book. It was so uplifting and showed that literature cannot live without translators. It becomes silent, lacks voice and has no opportunity to spread, says Olga Tokarczuk.

Want to spread the culture outside the cities

The foundation she now founded based in the hometown of Wrocław in western Poland is also about what she so often writes about, our relationship with nature and life beyond the big cities, in the periphery.

- I thought it was a bit unfair that the higher culture is accessible to those who live in the central cities, in the cities and do not seep down. That was the main idea behind the foundation. It is also important for me to show how much human culture is united with nature.

Working on a new novel

Olga Tokarczuk has a particularly hectic time behind her, besides working with the foundation, she has been on a book launch tour in Germany where untamed crowds of fans have followed her, with requests for book signings and selfies. Soon she will arrive in Stockholm for the festivities during the Nobel week.

- In all this resurrection - for good and for bad - I long for the most to return to the novel I have started. It is by no means a Nobel novel or particularly exceptional. It is a very ordinary novel and the next step in my development as a writer, she says.

Can you say what it is about?

- No, I'd rather not say that now, because I always think that if I talk a lot about what I write about, I release energy, and then I no longer have any need to write it, says Olga Tokarczuk.