The Mexican writer Octavio Paz was born in 1914 and died in 1998. Paz combined politics and writing and was also an ambassador for several periods. SVT's Lars Helander met Paz at his home in Mexico City.
Kenzaburo Oe, was born on the island of Shikoku in southwestern Japan and spent his childhood in an isolated forest village during the war. The experience of nature's secret forces, the island's special history and culture.
Wislawa Szymborska has often been called a skeptic - but is at the same time a person with humor and a very special twinkle in the eye. Characteristic of her poetry is an emotional distancing that often in seemingly everyday observations.
Dario Fo - Nobel Laureate of Surprises. Nobody expected the Swedish Academy to award the Italian playwright /actor/director the Nobel Price of Literature in 1997. Lars Helander traveled to Milano to get a closeup interview.
The 1998 Nobel Laureate in Literature, the Portuguese José Saramago, is an imaginative narrator who builds fantastic novel worlds. A true humanist with a motley background and genuine social pathos.