Dear Svetlana Alexievich,

Permit me to offer you my most sincere congratulations on winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. The jury in Stockholm has reached a courageous decision as it has quite rightly recognised the genre of a collage of voices that you have created as great literature of our age.

For decades, you have been adding new chapters to your great project to give people who would otherwise only appear as “history’s grains of sand” a voice. I am especially grateful that you are not only making their voices and your voice heard here in Germany and I would be delighted to be able to continue the discussions we started at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in the near future.

I wish you great strength for your future work.

Yours sincerely