Jonathan Littell
Jonathan Littell (born October 10, 1967 in New York ) is a French writer of American origin.
life and work
Littell comes from a Jewish family with Eastern European roots. The family name was originally "Lidsky". His paternal and paternal grandparents emigrated from Russia to the USA between 1880 and 1886 when the persecution of Jews began after the murder of Tsar Alexander II . His father Robert Littell became known as a reporter and author of numerous spy novels read worldwide. Jonathan Littell grew up bilingual, went to school in Paris until 1985 and then studied at Yale . After previous rejection by the French authorities, he has also been a French citizen since March 2007 following his book success ( Les Bienveillantes ) .
At the age of 39 he published his second novel " The Well-Minded " ( Les Bienveillantes ) in French , which he wrote after several years of research in just 120 days and for which he was awarded the Prix Goncourt . Jonathan Littell's first book publication is the science fiction novel Bad Voltage: A Fantasy in 4/4 in a publishing house specializing in thrillers and spy novels. Littell has u. a. Works by Blanchot , Genet and de Sade translated into English.
Littell visited Bosnia , Afghanistan , the Congo and Chechnya as an employee of the NGO Action Contre la Faim ; There he was slightly wounded in January 2001 and began researching for his book The Well-Minded for five years. He lives in Barcelona today .
In August 2008, Littell traveled to Georgia on behalf of Le Monde . His report on the 2008 Caucasus conflict was published there on October 3, 2008 .
In January 2012, Littell traveled to Syria on behalf of Le Monde to report on the civil war there. The report is “a document, not a literary work” and was published in July 2012 as an e-book.
In 2016, the Littell-directed documentary Wrong Elements was released. The focus is on former child soldiers from the civil war in Uganda in the late 1980s who fought in the Lord's Resistance Army . The German theatrical release was at the end of April 2017.
Works
- 1989: Bad Voltage. A fantasy in 4/4 . Signet Books, New York City. ISBN 0-451-16014-2
- 2006: Les Bienveillantes . Editions Gallimard. ISBN 2-07-078097-X
- German: The well-meaning . Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2008. ISBN 978-3-8270-0738-4
- 2008: Le Sec et L'Humide . Editions Gallimard, Paris. ISBN 978-2-07-011945-5 (especially about Léon Degrelle )
- German: The dry and the wet. A brief incursion into fascist territory . Translated from the French by Hainer Kober . Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 2009. ISBN 3-8270-0825-5 (with an afterword by Klaus Theweleit )
- 2009: a Sunday in summer . Translated from the French by Hainer Kober. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2009. ISBN 978-3-88221-741-4
- 2009: Chechnya in III . Translated from the French by Hainer Kober. Berliner Taschenbuch Verlag btv, Berlin. ISBN 978-3-8333-0688-4
- 2011: Report on nothing . Translated from the French by Hainer Kober. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin. ISBN 978-3-88221-614-1
- 2012: Notes from Homs . Translated from the French by Dorit Gesa Engelhardt. Hanser, Munich. ISBN 978-3-446-24114-5
- 2013: Triptych: three studies on Francis Bacon . Translated from the French by Hainer Kober. Hanser, Munich. ISBN 978-3-446-24032-2
- 2016: an old story . Matthes & Seitz, Berlin. ISBN 978-3-95757-231-8
literature
- Reinhard Finck: Jonathan Littell , in: Jan-Pieter Barbian (Red.): Vive la littérature! French literature in German translation. Edited and published by Duisburg City Library . ISBN 978-3-89279-656-5 , p. 20
- Jonathan Littell , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 47/2012 from November 20, 2012, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
Web links
- Literature by and about Jonathan Littell in the catalog of the German National Library
- Jonathan Littell in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
- Short biography and reviews of works by Jonathan Littell at perlentaucher.de
- Works by and about Jonathan Littell at Open Library
- Jonathan Littell in conversation , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, November 3, 2007
- Edgar Hilsenrath to Littell . Conversation between Edgar Hilsenrath and Volker Dittrich on March 26, 2008 about The Well-intentioned von Littell, reproduced on literaturkritik.de
- The executioner's song , interview (English) in Haaretz , accessed June 5, 2008
- Interview with Jonathan Littell: Do you like cheese? , Frankfurter Rundschau, June 24, 2008
Individual evidence
- ↑ The executioner's song Interview (English) in Haaretz , accessed July 2, 2008.
- ↑ "Jonathan Littell explains each to Nazi" , Die Welt , February 15, 2008
- ^ "France rewards Jonathan Littell with a passport" , Berliner Zeitung , March 10, 2007
- ^ "Littell's controversial Nazi novel now in German" ( Memento from March 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), Ö1 , February 18, 2008
- ↑ a b Review of Bad Voltage : "The False Beauty of Jonathan Littell" , Die Welt , February 20, 2008
- ^ "Best-selling author helps student from Chechnya attend Alfred University" , Alfred University, New York, August 4, 2004
- ^ Littell visits Georgia, Jürg Altwegg, FAZ, October 4, 2008
- ^ Carnet de route en Géorgie ( Memento of October 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), par Jonathan Littell, Le Monde 2, October 3, 2008.
- ↑ »I don't believe in regret«, interview with Jonathan Littell in concrete 5/2017, pp. 54–55.
- ↑ Mobile phones have become museums of horror , FAZ August 7, 2012, p. 30
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Littell, Jonathan |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American-French writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 10, 1967 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City |