| Guest of the ilb 2001
Carlos Franz was born in Geneva in 1959, the son of
a Chilean diplomat. He studied Law and Sociology in Chile and
spent some time in Argentina before returning to his father’s native
country. In 1989 he published his first novel, 'Santiago Cero'.
Two years earlier the manuscript had won first prize in a Latin
American literature competition. The judges commented that the
work had been strongly shaped by recent Chilean history, as it focuses
on the period of military dictatorship. Besides novels, Franz has
published several short stories and worked for various newspapers and
magazines as a journalist and critic. He was also
Professor of Literature at Georgetown University and at the
Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago de Chile.
Franz belongs to the Joven Narrativa Chilena (Young Chilean
Narrative) writers' movement, which advocates prose without
pathos. Instead, the authors write carefully structured
observations and frugal forms of expression, rejecting artificial
sentimentality and rhetoric. Despite their rather gloomy tone,
they have a wide readership in Chile.
The first German translation of Franz’s work 'Wo einst das Paradies
war' appeared in 1999. This novel is a dramatic family saga set
in the heart of the Amazon region. It received the Planeta
Literature Prize. Franz was also awarded the Premio Novela de la
Nación-Sudamericana for his political novel "El desierto" (2005; t: The
desert). "We must close the dark chapters of our history and look to
the future" the writer told the 'Berliner Morgenpost'.
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