The Nobel Prize for Literature is one of those awards no one can predict. Many try, but fail dismally. There’s no list of authors published because though certain books are cited as being particularly noteworthy, the award is based on an author’s body of work and it’s up to a random Swedish cohort of lifelong members to determine the laureate. The Nobel committee sends nomination forms to hundreds of individuals and organisations qualified to nominate for the prize and these are not made known. The nominations are sifted through, a final list of five people is drawn — also not divulged, the committee reads their works, then meets. To win, the candidate must receive more than half of the votes cast...