Daniel Kehlmann

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Daniel Kehlmann (born January 13, 1975 in Munich) is a German language author. He has both German and Austrian citizenship. His work Die Vermessung der Welt (translated into English by Carol Brown Janeway as Measuring the World, 2006) is the biggest selling novel in the German language since Patrick Süskind's Perfume was released in 1985. Kehlmann's works, and in particular Die Vermessung der Welt, are heavily influenced by Latin American magical realism and represent a dramatic shift from the goals of the influential Group 47.[1] He was awarded the Heimito von Doderer prize for the novel.

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[edit] Life

Kehlmann was born in Munich, the son of the television director Michael Kehlmann. He moved to his father's hometown of Vienna at the age of six. At university he read philosophy and literature before doing research for a doctoral thesis on the sublime in the works of Immanuel Kant which he did not finish partly because of his success as a writer.

In 1997 Kehlmann completed his first novel, Beerholms Vorstellung, while still a student. He also wrote numerous reviews and essays while at university, contributing to such organs as: Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Literaturen.

In 2001, Kehlmann held the guest lectureship of poetics at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz. In the winter term of 2005/6 Kehlmann held the lectureship of poetics at the FH Wiesbaden, and in 2006/7 he is holding the lectureship for poetics at the university of Göttingen. Daniel Kehlmann is a member of the Mainzer Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur.

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[edit] Notes and references

"Humboldt's Gift", The Nation, 30 April 2007.

  1. ^ The Guardian Luke Harding: "Unlikely bestseller heralds the return of lightness and humour to German literature", 19 July 2006, p.21.

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