Nobel : the enigmatic Alfred and his prizes

The telegram reaches Sweden on the morning of Friday, 10 December 1896. Sixty-three-year-old Alfred Nobel has passed away quickly and unexpectedly during the night, at his villa in the Italian city of San Remo. The news makes it into Afton­bladet the same day. ‘Every educated Swede feels sorrow at the loss of one of their greatest countrymen,’ writes the newspaper, while avoiding the question that will soon be on every-one’s lips: Who will now inherit his riches?

NOBEL: The Enigmatic Alfred and His Prizes is the fascinating story of the path from Alfred Nobel’s youth to the high-stakes drama that enveloped the dynamite king’s last will and testament. Set against the backdrop of cities such as St Petersburg, Hamburg and Paris, and framed by family quarrels, heartbreak, successes and betrayals, NOBEL is also a captivating account of nineteenthcentury Europe that explores its political currents, literary treasures and scientific genius. This is a story about breaking boundaries. The awardwinning author and journalist Ingrid Carlberg has combed through archives in multiple countries, unearthing hitherto unknown sources that cast new light on the man who dreamed of doing good for humanity. She combines the researcher’s scholarly rigour with the readability and verve of a narrative journalist. In NOBEL, she has written the first cohesive, comprehensive work to tell the story of Alfred Nobel and the background to the Nobel prizes.

Ingrid Carlberg (b. 1961) is a writer, journalist and since 2020 member of the Swedish Academy.