Benedict Wells

Benedict Wells, 2016

Benedict Wells, 2011

Benedict Wells (born February 29, 1984 in Munich ) is a German - Swiss writer .

Life

At the age of six Wells came to the Grunertshofen primary school . He then spent his school days exclusively at boarding schools. After graduating from high school in 2003, he moved to Berlin , where he decided against studying and began writing . He earned his living with various part-time jobs, according to his publisher Diogenes , he also worked as a freelance television editor in between .

His second novel, Beck's Last Summer , was first published in 2008 by Diogenes and received high acclaim in literary criticism. The weekly newspaper Die Zeit called him “the most interesting debut of the year”. The book tells the story of Robert Beck, a teacher and musician in his late thirties, who rethinks his life and goes on a road trip to Istanbul . At 23, Wells was Diogenes' youngest writer under contract at the time the novel was published.

In 2009 Wells was awarded the Bavarian Art Prize. That same year he published his first novel, Spinner , which he wrote at the age of nineteen. The protagonist is the twenty-year-old Jesper Lier, who is experiencing an eventful week in Berlin. Wells' third novel Fast genial entered the bestseller list at number 6 in 2011. It is about a boy from a poor background who goes in search of his unknown and apparently brilliant father.

As it became known only after the success of his third novel and against his will, Wells is the grandson of Baldur von Schirach , the son of the writer Richard von Schirach and brother of Ariadne von Schirach . The writer Ferdinand von Schirach is his cousin. In order to distance himself from the past of his family and to appear independently, Wells had his real name officially changed after his school days. In this respect, his last name is not a stage name or pseudonym, but his official name. He chose the surname Wells as an homage to the fictional character Homer Wells from John Irving's book The Work of God and the Devil's Contribution . Irving's novels were also the reason Wells started writing.

In 2015, the film adaptation of Beck's last summer with Christian Ulmen in the leading role came to the cinema. In 2016, his fourth novel From the End of Loneliness was published , on which Wells wrote for seven years according to his own account. It is about three siblings who lose their parents early in an accident, and how this event shapes and changes them for their future lives. Shortly after publication, the novel reached third place on the Spiegel bestseller list. Wells was awarded the European Union Literature Prize for The End of Loneliness .

After a few years in Barcelona, Wells is now living in Berlin and Bavaria again and is a member of the German national football team Autonama . As the son of a woman from Lucerne, he has both German and Swiss citizenship.

Since March 2019 Wells has been the sponsor of the Hohenschwangau grammar school in the Germany-wide project School without Racism - School with Courage .

Books

• Beck's last summer . Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-06676-0 .
• Weirdo . Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-06717-0 .
• Almost awesome . Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-257-06789-7 .
• From the end of loneliness . Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2016, ISBN 978-3-257-06958-7 .
• The Truth About Lying: Ten Stories . Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2018, ISBN 978-3-257-07030-9 .

Text contributions

• Amsterdam . In: Beach Reading Book . Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-257-24085-6 . And in: Football is our love . Suhrkamp , Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-518-46233-1 .
• The primary school home . In: Lichterloh . Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2016, ISBN 978-3-25724-379-6 . And in: unhoused . Nicolai Verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-89479-712-6 .
• Football, Bloody Hell . In: The game of my life . Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-499-63254-9 .
• On the threshold . In: Everything on red . Blumenbar Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-351-05046-7 .
• With the Trans-Siberian Railway through Russia . In: In good company . Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2019, ISBN 978-3-257-24513-4 .
• Barcelona, ​​a festival for life . In: Dangerous Holidays - Spain . Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2020, ISBN 978-3-257-24541-7 . And in: days like this . fineBooks Verlag, Berlin 2020, ISBN 978-3-948-37320-7 .

Film adaptations

• 2015: Becks last summer , director: Frieder Wittich

Awards

• 2008: Bavarian Art Prize for Becks last summer
• 2016: European Union Literature Prize for From the End of Loneliness
• 2016: Book Prize of the Ravensburger Verlag Foundation for From the End of Loneliness
• 2016: Favorite book of the independent book trade for From the end of loneliness
• 2018: Euregio pupil literature prize for From the end of loneliness

Web links

Commons : Benedict Wells  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Benedict Wells in the catalog of the German National Library
• Benedict Wells in the Bavarian literature portal (project of the Bavarian State Library )
• Benedict Wells at Perlentaucher
• Homepage of Benedict Wells
• Benedict Wells at the international literature festival berlin

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biography - Benedict Wells . In: Benedict Wells . ( benedictwells.de [accessed on March 20, 2018]).
2. ↑ B. Wells: The Truth About Lying. Ten stories. Zurich 2018. p. 244.
3. ^ Diogenes Verlag - Benedict Wells. Retrieved January 7, 2018 . 
4. ^ Biography of Benedict Wells on the cover of Becks last summer
5. ↑ Beck's last summer entry at Perlentaucher
6. ↑ The most interesting debut of the year: Benedict Wells' novel "Beck's Last Summer"
7. ^ Benedict Wells author's biography in Diogenes
8. ↑ "I'm a writer, it has to be like that!" Interview in: DIE ZEIT on October 16, 2008
9. ^ Benedict Wells in the author's lexicon of the Bavarian State Library. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
10. ↑ Almost awesome on the bestseller list ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
11. ↑ Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung , August 28, 2011, No. 34, p. 26
12. ↑ "I was considered a failure!" Article on Spiegel online from March 15, 2013
13. ^ "In own matter" article on the homepage from October 9, 2017
14. ↑ Paula Cocozza: Benedict Wells on the tear-jerker did Took Europe: 'I used anger to keep going'. March 20, 2018, accessed March 20, 2018 . 
15. ↑ "Special authors deserve special attention!" Exclusive portrait of Benedict Wells at Booksection.de , 2010
16. ↑ Page on Beck's last summer on kino.de , accessed on August 31, 2015.
17. ↑ Claudio Armbruster: Wells' "From the end of loneliness" An incredibly sad masterpiece ( memento of the original from April 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. heute.de . Retrieved April 7, 2016. 
18. ↑ Spiegel bestseller list: Fiction / Hardcover (No. 11/2016)
19. ↑ There is no happiness without tears NDR.de from February 23, 2016. Retrieved on April 7, 2016
20. ^ Benedict Wells among the winners in: Börsenblatt des Deutschen Buchhandels from April 5, 2016. Accessed April 7, 2016.
21. ↑ Benedict Wells now also Swiss in: Focus from July 7, 2016.
22. ↑ Benedict Wells is the sponsor of the Hohenschwangau grammar school in the "School without Racism, School with Courage" campaign
23. ↑ Bavarian Art Prize for Wells in kulturport.de from October 27, 2017.
24. ^ SZ of April 7, 2016
25. ↑ Book Prize of the Ravensburger Foundation for Wells in Buchmarkt.de of October 11, 2016.
26. ^ Week of Independent Bookstores / Benedict Wells wrote the favorite book / boersenblatt.net. In: www.boersenblatt.net. Retrieved December 8, 2016 . 
27. ↑ Euregio student literature prize for Wells in Grenzecho.net from April 20, 2018.