Wallace's The Prize is a nice long book in which six characters win the Nobel Prize and are all brought to Stockholm for a week. Wallace does a good job shifting through the different characters and gives lots of interesting history & tidbits on the Nobel Prize. His invention of the reasons for which the prizes are awarded is also excellent, particularly the reason the prize for literature is awarded to Andrew Craig (because it allows the Nobel judges to display their erudition).

The book was published in 1962 and naturally is a product of those times. Of interest to me was the aftermath of WWII in many of the characters' lives and the paranoia induced by the Cold War. What I found annoying -- and perhaps this was also a product of the times -- was Wallace's portrayal of the female characters. My word, they ALL wanted to go to bed with Andrew Craig! As Craig was the winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, it seemed more like a prized fantasy of Wallace's.

A small but irritating point. Emily, with her knowledge of German, would immediately understand what Craig explains to her about Swedish.