Herta Muller, the Romanianborn German writer, has won the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature.The award was announced in Stockholm. Ms Muller, 56, immigrated to Germany from Romania in 1987.She is the first German writer to win the Nobel Prize for literature since Gunter Grass in 1999 and the 13th winner writing in German since the prize was first given in 1901.She is the 12th woman to get the literature prize. But unlike Doris Leasing and V.S.Naipaul, Ms Muller is relatively unknown outside literary circles in Germany."I am very surprised and still cannot believe it," Ms Muller said in a statement in Germany."I can't say anything more at the moment." She has written about 20 books, but just five have been translated into English, including the novels "The Land of Green Plums" and "The Appointment". At a news conference at the German Publishers and Booksellers Association in Berlin, where she lives, Ms Muller, wearing all black and sitting on a big chair, appeared overwhelmed by all the cameras in her face.She spoke of the 30 years she spent under a dictatorship, describing "living with fear in the morning that in the evening one would no longer exist". When asked what it meant that her name would now be mentioned at the same moment as German greats like Thomas Mann and Heinrich Bll, Ms Muller remained calm."I am now nothing better and I'm nothing worse," she said."My inner thing is writing.That's what I can _ and if nothing special happens, I will never give up." Earlier in the day, at a news conference in Stockholm, Peter Englund,secretary of the Swedish Academy, said Ms Muller was honored for her "very, very special language" and because "she has really a story to tell about...and growing up as a stranger in your own family." Before getting the Nobel Prize, Ms Muller   _  .
was famous for her works lived a poor but happy life was not wellknown to most people had enough confidence in winning it