Everything about Jonathan Littell totally explained
Jonathan Littell (born
10 October 1967 in
New York) is an
American-
French writer who now lives in
Barcelona. His first novel written in
French,
Les Bienveillantes (
2006), won two major French awards.
Works
Littell's novel
Les Bienveillantes ('"The Kindly Ones'") ("Die Wohlgesinnten") was written in
French and was published in
France in
2006. The novel is the story of
World War II and the
Eastern Front, through the fictional memories of an articulate
SS Obersturmbannführer named Maximilien Aue.
The English translation will be published by
HarperCollins in 2008.
Littell said he was inspired to write the novel after seeing a photograph of
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, a
Soviet partisan executed by the
Nazis. He traces the original inspiration for the book from seeing
Claude Lanzmann’s film
Shoah, an acclaimed documentary about
the Holocaust, in 1989. He began research for the book in 2002 and wrote the first draft in 112 days.
Les Bienveillantes won the 2006
Prix Goncourt and the
grand prix du roman of the
Académie française and is a contender for several other French literary prizes. Reviews in France were generally good. The book sold 280,000 copies in its first six weeks.
Littell's only previously published book, the
cyberpunk novel
Bad Voltage (
1989), tells the story of Lynx, a "half-breed" who lives in a futuristic
Paris. Many scenes in the novel take place in the
Paris Catacombs. Littell has also published a detailed intelligence report about the security organs of the
Russian Federation.
Biography
Littell is the son of author
Robert Littell. His ancestors were Jews who emigrated from
Poland to the
United States at the end of the 19th century. He attended
Yale University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in
1989.
Littell arrived in
France at age three, then completed part of his education in his native country from age 13 to 16, before returning to France to achieve his
baccalauréat. He returned again to the United States for
college. From
1994 to
2001, he worked for the international humanitarian organization
Action Against Hunger. He headed the agency’s mission in
Chechnya. In January 2001 he was victim of an ambush there, during which he was slightly wounded and
Kenny Gluck from
Médecins Sans Frontières was kidnapped.
Littell obtained French
citizenship (being able to keep the US one) in
March 2007 after French officials made use of a clause stating that any French speaker whose "meritorious actions contribute to the glory of France" are allowed to become citizens, despite not fulfilling the requirement that he live in France for more than 6 months out of the year.
Bibliography
Awards
Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française, 2006, for Les Bienveillantes
Prix Goncourt, 2006, for Les BienveillantesFurther Information
Get more info on 'Jonathan Littell'.
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