I am a literary giant in Japan

Chapter 522 is truly an epic masterpiece.

Shastan didn't believe anyone could win the Nobel Prize in Literature with just one book.

Throughout history, most award winners have relied on their long literary careers, with one critically acclaimed and commercially successful work after another, accumulating time and energy before finally receiving the world's premier literary crown on their deathbed.

If anyone could win the Nobel Prize in Literature for a single work, she felt it could only be Leo Tolstoy and his "War and Peace".

No one else is qualified.

The other lifetime judges shared the same opinion as her.

They do not deny Kitagawa Hide's literary talent and creative ability, and they also feel guilty about the previous two selections.

But to think that they would award the prize to Hideaki Kitagawa based solely on a novel is wishful thinking.

If it weren't for Arnault's interference last time, Kitagawa Hide would have been able to win the award with works like "One Hundred Years of Solitude," "The Old Man and the Sea," and "In Search of Lost Time," along with his previous works and his status in the Japanese literary world.

But this is also the result of at least three top-tier works.

Just one work.
It's impossible no matter how you think about it.

Soon, Sher, Shastan, and others were immersed in the story of "Childhood".

Young and naive Alyosha was forced to live with his maternal grandfather. His pain, his sorrow, his joys and sorrows touched the hearts of a group of Nobel Prize lifetime judges every minute.

The translator of the English version of Childhood is Moss Romoss, a well-known American writer and translator who taught at New York University and Columbia University. He also translated the English version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms next door.

Moss's writing style is more in line with Western aesthetics. In his eloquent stories, the rich social atmosphere of Tsarist Russia in the last century is palpable, leaving a group of lifetime judges thoroughly satisfied.

Section after section.

Before they knew it, the elderly folks were turning page after page of Sher's book, gradually reaching the end of "Childhood".

My mother's eyes lit up, and she asked me with a smile, "How were you? Were you scared just now?"

I shook my head and didn't say anything.

I wasn't afraid just now, and I even feel a little comfortable now.

They ate for a long time and ate a lot, as if they had nothing to do with the people who had just been arguing and wailing.

Their heated words and actions no longer affect me.

Many years later, I gradually came to understand that, due to poverty, the Russians seemed to prefer being accompanied by sorrow, yet were always striving to forget it, rather than feeling ashamed of their misfortune.

In the long days and months, sorrow is a festival, and fire is a celebration; on a face that has nothing, scars become embellishments.

So one Thursday, after my mother suddenly passed away, I buried her with them, and then left that house with my grandmother without looking back.

'Go! Go! Go! Get out of here! Go to hell! All of you, get out of here!'

Amidst my grandfather's incessant shouts, I followed my grandmother into the world.

In the final part of the twelfth chapter of Childhood, Shasiting read it word by word.

Her voice was soft, neither as weathered as Sher's nor as heavy as Knut's, and it sounded like a broadcaster reciting poetry, which the others quite enjoyed.

The fact that it could cause Shastan, who had been skeptical of "Childhood" just over an hour ago, to undergo a complete 180-degree change of attitude shows just how powerful this novel is!
"In the long days and months, sorrow is a festival, and fire is a carnival; on a face that has nothing, scars become embellishments."

This sentence is so well written, and Moss's translation is also spot on. It's truly a masterpiece, a rare gem.

Sher gently closed the magazine, and when he looked at the little Russian boy on the cover again, he had a new understanding and insight.

Those wide-open eyes, that burning thirst for knowledge and curiosity, were the very force that sustained Alyosha as he persevered in living on after losing his father, grandparents, mother, and other loved ones.

A child who has lived a life of constant displacement since the age of three is destined to have a desolate and painful childhood.

Kitagawa Hide did not arbitrarily alter Alyosha's childhood in an attempt to beautify anything, or under pressure from the Tsarist Russian government.

He meticulously wrote down the childhood of an ordinary Tsarist Russian child living in the 1870s and 1880s.

“It is worthy of being called an epic masterpiece.” Shastan was still savoring the ending of Childhood.

At this moment, all she wanted to know was what Alyosha would experience after leaving her grandfather's house and going to Nizhny Novgorod with her grandmother.

Kitagawa Hide's intentions were quite clear.

At the end of Childhood, the author almost explicitly names Nizhny Novgorod as the "world," and the title of the second book is The World, which will obviously focus on the daily life of the grandfather and grandson in the "world."

But how will this "human world" differ from the "human world" they imagine?

In the even more chaotic Nizhny Novgorod, could an old woman and a ten-year-old child really survive?
The article also mentions that the last part of the trilogy is called "My Universities". It seems that the whole story will be written in the rhythm of childhood, adolescence and youth, until Alyosha enters a university to study.

Or perhaps "My Universities" will be Alyosha's university life?
Sally was filled with countless questions, but she didn't know Kitagawa Hide or the specific worldview of the trilogy, so she could only look to Göran Malmqvist and Knut, hoping to get some answers from them.

"I told you that 'Childhood' alone would be enough for him to win the Nobel Prize in Literature," Göran Malmqvist said with a smile, looking at everyone with unwavering confidence. "In recent years, a new generation of young and talented writers has indeed emerged from all over the world, and our shortlist has been getting younger and younger each year. It seems that apart from Hideaki Kitagawa, the youngest nominee is only 31 years old, right?"

“Yes, 31 years old, a little guy from Spain.” Sher is almost ninety years old this year, and it’s not wrong for him to call a 31-year-old a little guy—his great-grandson at home is almost forty years old this year.

"However, among these newly emerging young people, only Kitagawa Hide is special, and he is someone we cannot compare to."

Göran Malmqvist was full of praise; he has always been a die-hard fan of Hideaki Kitagawa, and even left the Swedish Academy for him at one point.

He used to rave about Kitagawa Hideaki at the academy, and others either disagreed or even refuted him.

But at this moment, looking at the "Literature and Art" magazine on the table, and thinking about "Childhood" and the last few lines, no one argued with him anymore.

Silence is the best answer.

"Won't there be some changes next year?" After a long silence, Xia Siting still stubbornly replied in a low voice.

In the world of literature, anything is possible.

Ma Yue Ran and the others shook their heads.

Sher reached out and picked up the book "Literature" again, then said earnestly to Shastine, "As you just said, Ms. Shastine, very few people can win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which is the dream of countless people, with just one work."

Each impressive shortlist compels us to repeatedly read the biographies and complete works of all the nominees.

Without doing so, it would be very difficult to distinguish the subtle differences between them.

The differences between people can be vast or minute. But at the top level in a particular field, the differences between geniuses are often extremely small, so small that one has to scrutinize closely to barely distinguish between them.

This is why the Nobel Prize in Literature has always been difficult to select.

But ironically, there will always be one or two geniuses in this world.

They ignored differences, ignored distinctions, ignored everything, and reached their peak right from the start, with every work being a masterpiece.

Such a genius, in any era he lived in, would inevitably overshadow other geniuses, making them merely the backdrop to his dazzling life.

Michael Jordan in the basketball world is a perfect example.

In the history of world literature, the last writer to achieve this level was Leo Tolstoy.

But Tolstoy has been dead for almost ninety years.

Now, we should feel both fortunate and unfortunate.

Because our generation's 'Tolstoy' is about to emerge.

Sher's meaning is very clear.

Sassin is right; very few people can win the Nobel Prize in Literature with just one or two works.

This year's selection process has been combined from two previous years into one, and it is foreseeable that countless top literary figures from the literary world will compete for it.

It's certain that things will change.

But what kind of variable could cause Hideki Kitagawa, who wrote "Childhood" and went on to release "My Children" and "My Universities," to be rejected again?

There hasn't been such a person in the past two years, could there be one next year?
If you really have to pick one, Sher thinks it has to be another up-and-coming Kitagawa Shusuke!

This is enough to prove Kitagawa Hide's strength and irreplaceable nature.

His thoughts also reflect the thoughts of others.

Shastan fell silent again.

"So what should we do now? There's still a long time before the Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded next year, and the nominees from various countries won't be submitted until February next year."

During this lull in literary circles, people around the world should be discussing Alyosha's autobiographical trilogy. Are we just going to stand by and watch them debate it, continuing to feign indifference?

Gunnar Walqvist, another female academician with a fiery temper who had previously publicly clashed with Göran Malmqvist, asked coldly.

In the past, the Swedish Academy did not participate in any commentary or discussion of literary events in order to maintain its unique and high-class image.

Now, after the Arnault incident, this high-class image has been shattered, and many countries have lost their mystique towards the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Doing everything they can to salvage the credibility of the academy and the awards is what they must do now.

Kitagawa Hide's masterpiece will surely spark widespread discussion in the world of literature. If the Academy continues to feign indifference and aloofness at this point, it will only make it seem backward and shameless.

But asking them to fawn over Kitagawa Hide is no different from feeding him the award directly.
Everyone frowned, unable to come up with a good solution for the time being.

After a moment, the younger Knut slammed his hand on the table and suddenly said, "Shall we invite Professor Kitagawa to teach at the Faculty of Arts and grant him the status of a visiting professor?"
Our academy is not only the Nobel Prize selection body, but also a renowned literary institution in our country.

The academy has a long-standing tradition of inviting renowned writers from around the world to serve as honorary lecturers, and this practice has continued uninterrupted over the years.

Instead of directly praising and recognizing "Childhood," we first acknowledge his achievements and contributions in the field of literature, and then use his status as a visiting professor to ease tensions.

This would both lay the groundwork and hint at next year's selection, resolve the previous problem, and incidentally improve his reputation in Sweden and Norway.

"Hmm, that's a good idea." Sher nodded.

In fact, he had thought of this method as well, and I'm sure some of the lifetime judges present had thought of it as well.

However, these old-fashioned people are really unwilling to say such "weak" words in public—even in a meeting with just a few people, they feel embarrassed and ashamed.

Knowing this well, Knut naturally became the "first to stick his neck out".

As soon as Sher finished speaking, a group of people echoed his words.

The seventeen lifetime judges were unusually unanimous in their opinion. Scheer said he would immediately report the matter to the Nobel Prize committee, while the important task of contacting Kitagawa Hide was entrusted to Göran Malmqvist and Knut.

With the discussion surrounding "Childhood" settled, the seventeen scholars turned their attention to other competitive literary figures.

After "Childhood" was published in "New World", it instantly and unsurprisingly outsold "Modern Man", which serialized "Expulsion".

The Russian literary market was as if struck by a thunderbolt; in an instant, historical records such as the first-print day data and first-week sales of literary magazines were broken one by one.

The descriptions of Alyosha's family in "Childhood" are heart-wrenching, and the mother's "hasty death" at the end brings readers' emotions to a climax.

On the evening of April 20, Nizhny Novgorod was suddenly filled with countless readers who had come to see him.

This group of Russians, dressed in black and holding flowers, seemed to be paying tribute to Alyosha's deceased mother from afar.

The Tsarist Russia of the 1870s and 1880s described in "Childhood" is completely different from the descriptions in their history textbooks, and many children begin to pursue the truth and seek the truth.

The Tsarist Russian government did not pursue Kitagawa Hidekazu's responsibility for "The New World" too much.

They were short of money, and since "New World" had given them enough protection money in advance, they turned a blind eye.

When the authorities don't intervene, their subordinate departments understand and stop blocking these historical truths that would have been revealed anyway.

As the truth about the turmoil of the 19th century is revealed, the lower classes of Tsarist Russia are gradually coming into the view of many people.

"It turns out our country wasn't as powerful as we thought."

"It turns out that being far ahead was just a cliché."

"It turns out that suffering still exists at the bottom of society, and that books are the ladder of human progress."

Awakened members of the lower classes bought copy after copy of "The New World," hoping to find a way out and answers for the future in "Childhood."

However, "Childhood" offers no answers; it only contains the unsettling line, "Amidst my grandfather's incessant shouts, I followed my grandmother into the world."

Will the answer be in "In the World"?
(End of this chapter)