Elfriede Jelinek

About

A playwright and fiction writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2004, she is best known for her novel, The Piano Teacher (originally published in German as Die Klavierspielerin). Her other works include Lust and Die Kinder der Toten.

Before Fame

She published her first work, a collection of poems, in 1967.

Trivia

Her novel, The Piano Teacher, inspired a 2001 film starring Isabelle Huppert.

Family Life

She was raised in Vienna, Austria by a Catholic mother and a Jewish father. She married Gottfried Hungsberg in June of 1973.

Associated With

She won the Nobel Prize in Literature a year before playwright Harold Pinter received the same honor.