Jenny Erpenbeck (; born 12 March 1967) is a German writer and opera director. She won the 2015 ''Independent'' Foreign Fiction Prize for ''The End of Days'' and the 2024

International Booker Prize The International Booker Prize (formerly known as the Man Booker International Prize) is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. The introduction of the International Prize to complement the Man Booker Prize, as the Boo ...

for ''

Kairos ''Kairos'' () is an ancient Greek language, Greek word meaning 'the right or critical moment'. In modern Greek, ''kairos'' also means 'weather' or 'time'. It is one of two words that the ancient Greeks had for 'time'; the other being (). ...

''.

Life

Born in

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

, Erpenbeck is the daughter of the physicist, philosopher and writer John Erpenbeck and the Arabic translator Doris Kilias. Her paternal grandparents are the authors Fritz Erpenbeck and Hedda Zinner. In

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

she attended an Advanced High School, from which she graduated in 1985. She then completed a two-year apprenticeship as a

bookbinder Bookbinding is the process of building a book, usually in codex format, from an ordered stack of paper sheets with one's hands and tools, or in modern publishing, by a series of automated processes. Firstly, one binds the sheets of papers alon ...

before working at several theatres as props and wardrobe supervisor. From 1988 to 1990, Erpenbeck studied theatre at the

Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

. In 1990, she changed her studies to Music Theater Director (studying with, among others, Ruth Berghaus,

Heiner Müller Heiner Müller (; 9 January 1929 – 30 December 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postd ...

and

Peter Konwitschny Peter Konwitschny (born 21 January 1945 in Frankfurt am Main) is a German opera and theatre director. Biography Peter Konwitschny grew up in Leipzig, where his father Franz Konwitschny was principal conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchest ...

) at the Hanns Eisler Music Conservatory. After the successful completion of her studies in 1994, with a production of

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...

's opera '' Duke Bluebeard's Castle'' in her parish church and in the

Kunsthaus Tacheles The Kunsthaus Tacheles (English: ''Art House Tacheles'') was an art center in Berlin, Germany, a large () building and sculpture park on Oranienburger Straße, in the sub-neighborhood of Spandauer Vorstadt in the Mitte district. Huge, colorfu ...

, she spent some time at first as an assistant director at the opera house in

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

, where in 1997 she did her own productions of Schoenberg's ''

Erwartung ' (''Expectation''), Op. 17, is a one-act monodrama in four scenes by Arnold Schoenberg to a libretto by . Composed in 1909, it was not premiered until 6 June 1924 in Prague conducted by Alexander Zemlinsky with Marie Gutheil-Schoder as the sop ...

'', Bartók's ''Duke Bluebeard's Castle'' and a world premiere of her own piece ''Cats Have Seven Lives''. As a freelance director, she directed in 1998 different opera houses in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, including

Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considere ...

's ''

L'Orfeo ''L'Orfeo'' (Stattkus-Verzeichnis, SV 318) (), or ''La favola d'Orfeo'' , is a late Renaissance music, Renaissance/early Baroque music, Baroque ''favola in musica'', or List of operas by Claudio Monteverdi, opera, by Claudio Monteverdi, with a li ...

'' in

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

, ''

Acis and Galatea Acis and Galatea (, ) are characters from Greek mythology later associated together in Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. The episode tells of the love between the mortal Acis and the Nereid (sea-nymph) Galatea; when the jealous Cyclops Polyphemus kil ...

'' at the

Berlin State Opera The Staatsoper Unter den Linden ( State Opera under the Lime Trees), also known as the Berlin State Opera (), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of P ...

and

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

's ''

Zaide ''Zaide'' (originally, ''Das Serail'') is an unfinished German-language opera, K. 344, written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1780. Emperor Joseph II, in 1778, was in the process of setting up an opera company for the purpose of performing ...

'' in Nuremberg/Erlangen. In the 1990s, Erpenbeck started a writing career in addition to her directing. She later said, "the end of the system that I knew, that I grew up in — this made me write.” She is author of narrative

prose Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...

and plays: her debut novella in 1999, ''Geschichte vom alten Kind'' (''The Old Child''); in 2001, her collection of stories ''Tand'' (''Trinkets''); in 2004, the novella ''Wörterbuch'' (''The Book of Words''); and in 2008, the novel ''Heimsuchung'' (''Visitation''). In 2007, Erpenbeck took over a biweekly column by Nicole Krauss in the ''

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The (; ''FAZ''; "Frankfurt General Newspaper") is a German newspaper founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt and is considered a newspaper of record for Germany. Its Sunday edition is the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung'' ( ...

''. In 2015, the English translation of her novel ''Aller Tage Abend'' ( ''The End of Days'') won the ''Independent'' Foreign Fiction Prize. In September 2023, the English translation of ''Kairos'' by

Michael Hofmann Michael Hofmann (born 25 August 1957) is a German-born poet, translator, and critic. ''The Guardian'' has described him as "arguably the world's most influential translator of German into English". Biography Hofmann was born in Freiburg into ...

was longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature In 2024, Erpenbeck became the first German writer to win the

for ''Kairos'', which is also the first novel originally written in German to win the award. "Thirty years have passed since the country in which I was born is gone, so I could dare to look back and take my time to carefully research what I lived through without really being aware of it," she said. Erpenbeck's works have been translated into Danish, English, French, Greek, Hebrew, Dutch, Swedish, Slovene, Spanish, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Arabic, Estonian, Turkish, Croatian and Finnish. Erpenbeck lives in

with her husband, conductor , and her son.

Works

Novels

* ''Heimsuchung'' (2008). ''Visitation'', trans. Susan Bernofsky (New Directions, 2010; Portobello, 2011). * ''Aller Tage Abend'' (2012). ''The End of Days'', trans. Susan Bernofsky (New Directions, 2014; Portobello, 2015). * ''Gehen, ging, gegangen'' (2015). '' Go, Went, Gone'', trans. Susan Bernofsky (New Directions/Portobello, 2017). * ''

'' (2021). Trans.

(Granta/New Directions, 2023).

Novellas and short story collections

*''Geschichte vom alten Kind'' (1999). ''The Old Child'', trans. Susan Bernofsky. **Published with five stories from ''Tand'' as ''The Old Child and Other Stories'' (New Directions, 2005), and in ''The Old Child and The Book of Words'' (Portobello, 2008). *''Tand'' (2001). ''Trinkets''. Short stories. * ''Wörterbuch'' (2004). ''The Book of Words'', trans. Susan Bernofsky (New Directions/Portobello, 2007), and in ''The Old Child and The Book of Words'' (Portobello, 2008).

Essay collections

* ''Dinge, die verschwinden'' (2009). ''Things That Disappear'', trans. Kurt Beals (New Directions/Granta, 2025). * ''Kein Roman: Texte 1992 bis 2018'' (2018). ''Not a Novel: A Memoir in Pieces'', trans. Kurt Beals (New Directions/Granta, 2020).

Plays

* ''Katzen haben sieben Leben'' (2000). ''Cats Have Nine Lives'', trans. Di Brandt (2019). * ''Leibesübungen für eine Sünderin'' (2003). ''Physical Exercises for a Sinner''. *''Schmutzige Nacht'' (2015) *''Lot'' (2017)

Audiobooks

* 2016: ''Heimsuchung'' (novel, read by Jenny Erpenbeck), publisher:

der Hörverlag Der or DER may refer to: Places * Darkənd, Azerbaijan * Dearborn (Amtrak station) (station code), in Michigan, US * Der (Sumer), an ancient city located in modern-day Iraq * d'Entrecasteaux Ridge, an oceanic ridge in the south-west Pacific Ocean ...

, (

Audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sch ...

-Download) * 2021: ''Kairos'' (novel, read by Jenny Erpenbeck), publisher: der Hörverlag, (Audiobook-Download)

Awards and honours

* 2001: Jury Prize at the Ingeborg Bachmann Competition in Klagenfurt * 2001: Several residencies (Ledig Rowohlt House in New York, Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf) * 2004: GEDOK literature prize * 2006: Winner of the Scholarship Island Writers on

Sylt Sylt (; ; Söl'ring North Frisian: ) is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, with a distinctively shaped shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian Islands and is the largest island in North Fris ...

* 2008: Solothurner Literaturpreis * 2008: Heimito von Doderer Literature Prize * 2008: Hertha-Koenig-Literature Prize * 2009: Award of the North LiteraTour * 2010: Literature Prize of the Steel Foundation Eisenhüttenstadt * 2011:

Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize The Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize is an annual British literary prize inaugurated in 1977. It is named after the host ''Jewish Quarterly'' and the prize's founder Harold Hyam Wingate. The award recognises Jewish and non-Jewish writers ...

, shortlisted for ''Visitation'' * 2013: Joseph Breitbach Prize * 2014: Hans Fallada Prize * 2015: ''Independent'' Foreign Fiction Prize, winner for ''The End of Days'' (prize shared with the book's translator, Susan Bernofsky) * 2016:

International Dublin Literary Award The International Dublin Literary Award (), established as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. It promotes excellence in world literature and is solely ...

, shortlisted for ''The End of Days'' * 2016:

Thomas Mann Prize Thomas Mann Prize (''German'': Thomas-Mann-Preis) is a literary prize of Germany. In full the title is "Thomas Mann Prize of the city of Lübeck and the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts". It is given in alternate years in Lübeck and in Munich. The ...

* 2017: Strega European Prize * 2017:

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

* 2018: ''Go, Went, Gone'' New York Times Notable Book List 2018 * 2019: ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' ranked ''Visitation'' number 90 in its list of 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. * 2022: Uwe Johnson Prize for ''Kairos'' * 2024: The

for ''Kairos''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erpenbeck, Jenny Living people 1967 births German women novelists People from East Berlin Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Writers from Berlin 20th-century German dramatists and playwrights 20th-century German short story writers 20th-century German women writers 21st-century German novelists 21st-century German dramatists and playwrights 21st-century German short story writers 21st-century German women writers Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin alumni German opera directors Female opera directors German women dramatists and playwrights German women short story writers