Herta Müller wins the Nobel prize for literature

Romanian-born German writer Herta Mueller who has won the 2009 Nobel Prize in literature. She was honoured for work 'with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed' Photograph: Scanpix Sweden/Reuters

Müller's school diploma. Müller grew up in the German-speaking Romanian village of Nitzkydorf, 310 miles west of Bucharest Photograph: Reuters

A horse drawn cart on a road in Nitzkydorf Photograph: AP

Müller outside a Paris bookstore where a poster announces the launch of her first novel, The Passport. Müller wrote the novel in German; it was translated into French for its 1988 Paris release and published in English by Serpent's Tail in 1989 Photograph: Sophie Bassouls/Sygma/Corbis

Müller at her writing desk, 1988 Photograph: Interfoto/Alamy

Müller in Paris in 2001 Photograph: Pierre-Franck Colombier/AFP/Getty Images

Müller at the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Weimar, eastern Germany Photograph: Jens Meyer/AP

A young woman reads Herta Müller's novel Atemschaukel, at the Buch Habel book store in Wiesbaden, Germany Photograph: Arne Dedert/EPA

Answering questions prior to a reading of her new novel Atemschaukel (Everything I Possess I Carry With Me) in Stuttgart, on 7 October 2009 Photograph: Bernd Weissbrod/EPA

Herta Müller holds a news conference in Berlin, Germany after winning the 2009 Nobel Prize for literature Photograph: Herbert Knosowski/AP

Müller is photographed outside her house in Berlin, 8 October, after the Swedish Academy announced she had won the 2009 Nobel Literature prize Photograph: Michael Gottschalk/AFP/Getty Images