The 2015 Nobel Prize in literature has been awarded to Svetlana Alexievich

“A history of the soul if you wish”, she said. “I’m writing a history of human feelings”, she explains on her web site.

The Nobel Prize in Literature is annually awarded by the Swedish Academy for outstanding contributions in the field of literature. Its standard-size kitchen-which is to say, quite small-is outfitted with a couch, because it’s the room where, in keeping with the Soviet intelligentsia tradition, all the important conversations happen.

But Alexievich said she is unfazed by messages of hate that she sometimes receives from conservative columnists in both Russian Federation and Belarus. “This will give a positive edge to what she is doing”.

Alexievich was at affected by Belarusian blogger Ales Adamovich.

The group’s deputy director, Catherine Taylor, said she hoped the Nobel Prize “will further highlight the civil and political injustices in Belarus and go a few way to bringing about the restitution of free speech and freedom of expression for all Belarusians”. She finally returned to Minsk a couple of years ago, admitting that her plan to wait out the reign of the Belarusian dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, had failed.

“That doesn’t mean there aren’t predecessors – there are, absolutely – but she has taken the genre further”, Danius told The Associated Press.

The Nobel Prize in literature is awarded (almost) every fall to a writer for his or her body of work, and is considered the world’s most prestigious literary award.

She said another way should be explored to prevent the world from becoming like what she saw after the Chernobyl disaster.

“[Polish author] Ryszard Kapuściński was once in the running for the top prize, but no reporter has ever been honoured with the award”. Alexievich once said that her books were of human voices and their destinies.

The family moved to Belarus after her father completed his military service, and Alexievich studied journalism at the University of Minsk between 1967 and 1972. “It’s as good as Shakespeare”, she said of the quality of the woman’s words when I asked her about that part of the book, years ago.

She said she is going to use the prize money, 8m Swedish krona (€860,000) to buy her freedom to write. “I usually spend three to four years writing a book, but this time it took me more than ten years”. “I have two ideas for new books so I’m pleased that I will now have the freedom to work on them”.

She has also weighed into the debate over the crisis in Ukraine by praising protestors who ousted Kremlin-backed leader Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 for trying to shatter the links with the country’s Soviet history.

The 67-year-old Alexievich’s books have been published in 19 countries, with at least five of them translated into English.

Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich won the Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday for works that the prize judges called “a monument to suffering and courage”.

In an interview following the announcement, the Swedish Academy’s permanent secretary, Sara Danius, elaborated on the decision.