Israeli authors disappointed again as Chinese writer awarded Nobel Prize

The Swedish Academy on Thursday announced Chinese novelist Mo Yan as the winner of the prestigious 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature, once again passing over Israeli hopeful Amos Oz.

In announcing the award, the academy praised Mo, “who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary.”

Novelist Oz has long been considered Israel’s greatest shot at winning the prize. A chronicler of the young country’s struggles, Oz has been a constant fixture on the international literature scene, winning a number of prominent prizes, including the Israel Prize and an Italian literary prize.

Israeli writers A.B. Yehoshua, Shlomo Kalo and Daniel Kahneman had also been among hopefuls, though they were considered longer shots.

The last Israeli to win the prize in literature was S.Y. Agnon in 1966, though citizens of the Jewish state have been prominently represented in other prizes offered by the Swedish Academy, particularly in the sciences.