More on dual Nobel Prize winners Peter Handke, Olga Tokarczuk

We’d expected to share more on today’s Nobel Prize in Literature winners — hoped, in fact, that our favorite book sites would dig up their past coverage of the nominees.

That’s been true of Olga Tokarczuk; Literary Hub revived an interview from earlier this year on her novel Flights, about which she also spoke with the Guardian in 2018 (the same year that the novel took home the International Booker Prize).

For Peter Handke, though? Well, coverage of his win has been tempered with the reminder of past controversial comments.

Specifically, the Austrian author — who also has Slovenian heritage — has made comments in support of convicted war criminal Slobodan Milošević, attended his funeral, denied the Srebrenica genocide, and suggested that Sarajevo’s Muslims had massacred themselves, according to the Guardian.

Handke’s fellow authors, including Salman Rushdie, have criticized him in the past, and several more continued to speak out today.

Additionally, PEN America expressed “deep regret” over the choice in a statement that you can read on Literary Hub.

(And for those who enjoy the reflections of book critics, the Guardian is ready with musings on both Tokarczuk and Handke.)