Ilija Trojanow was born in 1965 in Sofia, grew up in Kenya, and lives now in South Africa.
In the mid-nineties, he studied law and ethnology in Munich, where he founded the Marino Publishing House for African Literature. His first book, In Afrika: Mythos und Alltag Ostafrikas, arose from his experience traveling through Africa and explores his relationship to Kenya.
In 1996, Trojanow wrote with author Chenjerai Hove Guardians of the Soil: Meeting Zimbabwe Elders. He also published his first novel, Die Welt ist groß und Rettung lauert überall.
In 1998, Trojanow moved to Bombay, where he wrote reportages and essays for Allgemeine Zeitung, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, as well as Along the Ganges: To the Inner Shores of India.
Trojanow's latest novel, Der Weltensammler (The Collector of Words), is based on the life of the English adventurer Sir Richard Burton and was awarded the 2007 Berlin Literature Prize, the 2006 Leipzig Book Fair Prize for fiction, and was short-listed for the 2006 German Book Prize.
Trojanow’s other awards include the Bertelsmann-Literaturpreis, the Marburger Literaturpreis, and the Adalbert von Chamisso Prize. His work has been translated into Spanish, Russian, Czech, Bulgarian, Dutch, English, French, Polish, and Arabic.
He lives in Cape Town.
|
|
