Anna Kim
Austria
Anna Kim was born in South Korea in 1977. In 1979, her family moved first to Germany (Braunschweig and Giessen) and subsequently to Vienna. There, she studied philosophy and theater studies. She published her debut novel Die Bildspur (The Trace of Pictures) in 2004. Her second novel, Die gefrorene Zeit (Frozen Time), won numerous grants and awards, including the European Union Literature Prize. Dietmar Krug described Anna Kim in the Austrian daily newspaper Die Presse as “a fine stylist and subtle psychologist with a sharp sense of the unfathomable.” The author sounds out distant regions and observes people in extreme situations.
Her most recent novel, Geschichte eines Kindes (Story of a Child), is set in the state of Wisconsin in the 1950s and tells the story of a mother who gives her child up for adoption. But the child is not white, contrary to the mother’s claim. This novel addresses the powerful and destructive idea of ‘race’ that continues to shape society. “Racism and labelling as other can harm a life to such an extent that it is no longer experienced as one’s own. Anna Kim has written a novel about people who are reduced to objects and about a lack of motherly love—both philosophical and varied,” writes Carsten Heuck in a review for Deutschlandfunk Kultur. This novel was nominated for both the German and the Austrian Book Prizes in 2022.
Geschichte eines Kindes. Roman. Suhrkamp 2022
Die grosse Heimkehr. Roman. Suhrkamp 2017
Die gefrorene Zeit. Roman. Droschl 2008
Die Bildspur. Novelle. Droschl 2004
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