Recently Svetlana Alexievich landed in Berlin, from where she’s headed to Italy, where another literary prize awaits her. Her staff assure us that the outstanding Belarusian reporter will return home. But will the authorities want to let her in? Paulina Wilk describes the Nobel laureate’s literary and ethical strength.

As an opposition activist, Alexievich had to spend the first decade of this century abroad – in Germany, France, Italy. But when five years ago the audience at the Big Book Festival in Warsaw asked her whether she’d stay in Belarus, she gave them this assurance: “I’ve promised my granddaughter. And besides, you can only describe the difficulties of life in Belarus by living there, at home. There aren’t many people who can do that. I can, so I’m staying.”

Young Belarusians came to the meeting to ask her how they’re supposed to live in captivity; she encouraged them to try at all costs to save themselves, their privacy and their relationships. “I don’t want everybody in Belarus