Novelist Orhan Pamuk, an international symbol of literary and social conscience, whose poetic, melancholy journeys into the soul of his native Turkey have brought him the many blessings and burdens of public life, won the Nobel literature prize today.

Pamuk, a visiting professor at Columbia University, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that he was overjoyed by the award and accepted it not just as “a personal honour, but as an honour bestowed upon the Turkish literature and culture I represent.”

The author did have one complaint: The Swedish Academy announced the prize at 7 am, EDT. “They called and woke me up, so I was a bit sleepy,” said the 54-year-old Pamuk, adding that he had no immediate plans to celebrate, but looked forward to being with friends back in Turkey.

The selection of Pamuk, whose recent trial for “insulting Turkishness” made headlines worldwide, continues a trend among Nobel judges of picking writers in conflict with their own governments. British playwright Harold Pinter, a blunt opponent of his country’s involvement in the Iraq war, won last year. Elfriede Jelinek, a longtime critic of Austria’s conservative politicians and social class, was the 2004 winner.

Pamuk, whose novels include Snow and My Name Is Red, was charged last year for telling a Swiss newspaper in February 2005 that Turkey was unwilling to deal with two of the most painful episodes in recent Turkish history: the massacre of Armenians during World War I, which Turkey insists was not a planned genocide, and recent guerrilla fighting in Turkey’s overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast.

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