The Life-Writer

A New York Times Notable Book 2016

An October Indie Next List “Great Reads” Pick

After the death of her beloved husband, Katrin, a literary biographer, copes with the loss by writing his personal history. While researching the letters and journals he left behind, however, she comes to the devastating conclusion that his life before their marriage was far richer than the one they shared. To understand and recreate the period of his greatest happiness—hitch-hiking through France as a young man, madly in love with his companion, a French girl named Monique—Katrin embarks on a heartbreaking journey to discover the man she never fully knew.

David Constantine is an award-winning short story writer, poet, and, translator. The title story of his North American debut collection of short fiction, In Another Country: Selected Stories (Biblioasis, 2015) was adapted into the Academy Award–nominated feature film 45 Years. He is the author of one previous novel, Davies, as well as four collections of short stories in the United Kingdom, and five collections of poetry. He lives in Oxford, England, where until 2012 he edited Modern Poetry in Translation with his wife Helen.

David Constantine is an award-winning short story writer, poet, and translator. The title story of his North American debut collection of short fiction, In Another Country: Selected Stories (Biblioasis, 2015) was adapted into the Academy Award-nominated feature film 45 Years. He is the author of one previous novel, Davies, as well as four collections of short stories in the UK, including Back at the Spike, Under the Dam, The Shieling, and the winner of the 2013 Frank O’Connor Award, Tea at the Midland and Other Stories. His collections of poetry include Caspar Hauser, The Pelt of Wasps, Something for the Ghosts (shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Prize), Collected Poems and Nine Fathom Deep. He is also a translator of Hölderlin, Brecht, Goethe, Kleist, Michaux, and Jaccottet. He lives in Oxford, where until 2012 he edited Modern Poetry in Translation with his wife Helen.