Amélie Nothomb (placeholder)

Amélie Nothomb (born August 13, 1967) is a Belgian writer. She was born in Kobe, Japan to Belgian diplomats, before living in China, New York, Bangladesh, Burma, and Laos. Her first novel, Hygiène de l’assassin was published in 1992. Since then, she has published approximately one novel per year with a.o. Les Catilinaires (1995), Fear and Trembling (1999) and Métaphysique des tubes (published in English as The Character of Rain) (2000).

She was awarded numerous prizes, including the Prix du Roman de L’Academie Francaise; the Prix Rene-Fallet; and twice the Prix Alain Fournier.

While in Japan, she attended a local school and learned Japanese. When she was five the family moved to China. “Quitter le Japon fut pour moi un arrachement” (“leaving Japan was a painful experience for me”) she writes in Fear and Trembling. Nothomb moved very often, before discovering Europe, more precisely, Brussels, where she reportedly felt as much a stranger as everywhere else. She studied philology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. After facing troubles in her family, she returned to Tokyo to work in a big Japanese company. Her experience of this time is told in Fear and Trembling.

She now lives and writes in Brussels. She says she writes three novels a year, publishing only one.

Bibliography:
1992 Hygiène de l’assassin
1993 Le Sabotage amoureux
1994 Les Combustibles
1995 Les Catilinaires
1996 Péplum
1997 Attentat
1998 Mercure
1999 Stupeur et tremblements
2000 Métaphysique des tubes
2001 Cosmétique de l’ennemi
2001 Aspirine
2002 Robert des noms propres
2003 Antéchrista
2004 Biographie de la faim
2005 Acide sulfurique