Jenny Erpenbeck was born in East Berlin in 1967. She is the author of several works of fiction, including the novels Go, Went, Gone, The End of Days, Visitation, and The Book of Words, each translated by Susan Bernofsky and published by New Directions, and most recently Not a Novel: A Memoir in Pieces. The End of Days won the prestigious Hans Fallada Prize and the International Foreign Fiction Prize. Erpenbeck lives in Berlin.