Tokarczuk's hometown offers free transport on buses, trams to bookworms carrying work by the country's new Nobel laureate

A Polish city is offering free public transport rides to bookworms – provided they're carrying work by the country's new Nobel literature prize laureate.

City transport authorities in Wroclaw, where Olga Tokarczuk lives, said on Friday that people displaying her books can ride for free on buses and trams over the weekend.

Tokarczuk won the 2018 Nobel Prize on Thursday for "a narrative imagination that with encyclopaedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life," in the words of the Swedish Academy that bestows the award.

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Poland's finance minister has said he will waive the income tax bill on the $905,000 Tokarczuk won with her prize.

Wroclaw in western Poland is a city of about 640,000.

Since 1901, 99 Nobel Peace Prizes have been handed out, to individuals and 24 organisations. While the other prizes are announced in Stockholm, the peace prize is awarded in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.

So far this week, 11 Nobel laureates have been named, of whom 10 are men.

Two literature prizes were awarded on Thursday: One for 2018 that went to Polish novelist Olga Tokarczuk and one for 2019 that was given to Austrian author Peter Handke.

Associated Press