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 grandparents 's and mother emigrated 1880-1886 from Russia to the United States when, after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, a further persecution of the Jews began. His father Robert Littell has been known as a reporter and author of numerous globally read spy novels. Jonathan Littell grew up bilingual, went to Paris to school until 1985 and then studied at Yale. After they had been rejected by the French authorities, he is after his successful book (Les Bienveillantes ) since March 2007 a ​​French citizen.

At 39, he published in French his second novel The Kindly Ones (Les Bienveillantes ), the research work he wrote in just 120 days after several years and for which he was awarded the Prix Goncourt. The first book publication of Jonathan Littell is the science- fiction novel Bad Voltage: A Fantasy in 4/4 in a company specialized in thrillers and spy novels publisher. Littell has translated among others works by Blanchot, Genet and de Sade into English.

Littell attended as an employee of the NGO Action Contre la Faim Bosnia, Afghanistan, Congo and Chechnya; there he was slightly wounded in January 2001 and began " The Kindly Ones " to research for five years for his book. He now lives with his partner and two children in Barcelona.

In August 2008, Littell traveled on behalf of Le Monde to Georgia. On 3 October 2008 appeared ibid. his report on the Caucasus conflict in 2008.

In January 2012, Littell traveled on behalf of Le Monde to Syria to report on the local civil war. The report is " a document, not a literary work" and published as e-books in July 2012.

Works

• 2009: German: The dryness and the humidity. A brief incursion into fascist grounds in Berlin -Verlag 2009 ISBN 3-8270-0825-5 (especially about Leon Degrelle )