Amélie Nothomb
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| Amélie Nothomb | |
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| Born | Fabienne Nothomb 13 August 1967 Kobe, Japan |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | Belgian |
| Notable work(s) | Stupeur et tremblements |
Amélie Nothomb (born Fabienne on 13 August 1967) is a Belgian writer who writes in French.
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[edit] Biography
Amélie Nothomb was born in Kobe, Japan to Belgian diplomats. She lived there until she was five years old, and then subsequently lived in China, New York, Bangladesh, Burma, Coventry and Laos. She is from a distinguished Belgian political family; she is the grandniece of Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb, a Belgian foreign minister (1980–1981), and great granddaughter of writer and politician Pierre Nothomb. She has one brother and one sister, Juliette Nothomb.
Nothomb's first novel, Hygiène de l'assassin, was published in 1992. Since then, she has published approximately one novel per year, including Les Catilinaires (1995), Fear and Trembling (1999) and Métaphysique des tubes (2000, published in English as The Character of Rain). She has been awarded numerous prizes, including the 1999 Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, the Prix René-Fallet, and the 1993 Prix Alain-Fournier.
While in Japan, Nothomb 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 wrenching separation for me"), she wrote in Fear and Trembling. Nothomb moved often, and she did not live in Europe until she was 17, when she moved to Brussels. There, she felt as much a stranger as everywhere else. She studied philology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. After some family tensions, she returned to Japan to work in a Japanese company in Tokyo. Her experience of this time is told in Fear and Trembling.
She wrote a romanticized biography (The Book of Proper Names) for the French female singer Robert in 2002 and during the period 2000-2002 she wrote the lyrics for nine tracks of the same artist.
Many ideas included in her books come from conversations she had with an Italian man from late eighties through the nineties. She used the French Minitel, while he used the Italian Videotel system. They never met in person.
[edit] Bibliography
| Published (in French) |
Type | Original title | English title | English publication details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | book | Hygiène de l'assassin | The hygiene of the assassin | |
| 1993 | book | Le Sabotage amoureux | Loving Sabotage | W. W. Norton & Co, hardback, 2000, ISBN 0-8112-1459-1 Faber and Faber, paperback, 2003, ISBN 0-571-22663-9 |
| 1993 | tale | Légende un peu chinoise (Longue Vue) |
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| 1994 | play | Les Combustibles | Human Rites | Oberon Books, paperback, 2005, ISBN 1-84002-539-5 |
| 1995 | book | Les Catilinaires | The Stranger Next Door | Holt (Henry) & Co, hardback, 1996, ISBN 0-8050-4841-3 |
| 1996 | book | Péplum | ||
| 1996 | 14 pages short story | Électre (Stock) |
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| 1996 | short story | L'Existence de Dieu (La Revue Générale) |
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| 1997 | book | Attentat | ||
| 1998 | book | Mercure | ||
| 1999 | book | Stupeur et tremblements | Fear and Trembling | Faber and Faber, paperback, 2002, ISBN 0-571-22048-7 |
| 1999 | 39 pages short story | Le Mystère par excellence (Le Grand livre du mois) |
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| 2000 | book | Métaphysique des tubes | The Character of Rain | Faber and Faber, paperback, 2003, ISBN 0-571-22049-5 |
| 2000 | 3 tales | Brillant comme une casserole (La Pierre d’Alun) |
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| 2001 | book | Cosmétique de l'ennemi | The enemy's cosmetique | |
| 2001 | 2 pages short story | Aspirin | ||
| 2001 | 64 pages short story | Sans nom (Elle) |
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| 2002 | book | Robert des noms propres | The Book of Proper Names | Faber and Faber, paperback, 2004, ISBN 0-571-22344-3 |
| 2003 | book | Antéchrista | Antichrista | Faber and Faber, paperback, 2004, ISBN 0-571-22483-0 |
| 2004 | 46 pages short story | L'Entrée du Christ à Bruxelles (Elle) |
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| 2004 | book | Biographie de la faim | The Life of Hunger | Faber and Faber, hardback, 2006 |
| 2005 | book | Acide sulfurique | Sulphuric Acid | Faber and Faber, hardback, 2007 |
| 2006 | book | Journal d'Hirondelle | ||
| 2007 | book | Ni d'Ève, ni d'Adam | Tokyo Fiancée | Europa Editions, hardback, 2008 |
| 2007 | short story in 9 episodes | Les Champignons de Paris (Charlie Hebdo) | ||
| 2008 | book | Le Fait du prince | The Prince's Act | Éditions Albin Michel |
| 2009 | book | Le Voyage d'Hiver | The Winter Journey | Éditions Albin Michel |
| 2010 | book | Une forme de vie | ||
| 2011 | book | Tuer le père |
Unless otherwise stated, all works were originally published in French by Éditions Albin Michel.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Amélie Nothomb |
- (French) Official site at Éditions Albin Michel
- (French) Amélie Nothomb on biblioweb.org
- (French) Criticisms of Human Rites on Lire.fr
- (French) Amélie Nothomb, Une plume, Un univers... (=Amélie Nothomb, A style of writing, A world...) : a French forum, very complete, and well-documented about the author, her work, her inspiring influences, current events, etc.
- (French) innamoramento.net, Amélie Nothomb et Mylène Farmer]
- (Italian) amelienothomb.com, an Italian website & forum at Voland edizioni
