Amélie Nothomb was born in Japan to Belgian parents in 1967. She lives in Paris. Her edgy fiction, unconventional thinking, and public persona have combined to transform her into a worldwide literary sensation. Her books have been translated into twenty-five languages and counting, and been awarded numerous prizes including the French Academy’s Grand Prix for the Novel, the René-Fallet, Alain-Fournier, and Jean-Giono prizes.
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Amélie Nothomb
All Amélie Nothomb's books
Latest reviews
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“Diverging dramatically from the recognizable, Jesus reveals his deepest thoughts with humor, fear, misgiving, but mostly aching honesty. He also proves himself a Proust fan [...] With Thirst, she entices lucky readers with a dissenting, potentially heretical, refreshingly...— Shelf Awareness, Apr 22 2021![]()
While having nothing like Reza’s international profile, the French-Belgian writer Amélie Nothomb is a big deal across the Channel for her intense, brief, unconventional novels. Her latest, Strike Your Heart, translated by Alison Anderson, is typical. An incisive examination...— The Times, Sep 24 2018![]()
The sharp, acerbic voice of the narrator (who shares the same name as the author) frames her Parisian world through her love for champagne and desire to find a companion with whom to drink it. The relationship she forms with Petronille not only induces humorous scenes and reflections,...— World Literature Today, May 17 2016![]()
The two women at the core of Amélie Nothomb’s 23rd novel find each other simultaneously bewitching, amusing and aggravating. The reader might be left with similar feelings towards the book, a self-referential step too far, perhaps, for this arch author. The narrator – a...— The Guardian, Nov 30 2015![]()
The prolific Belgian writer talks to PEN Atlas about the Parisian literary scene, a recurring character called Amélie Nothomb and her latest book - Petronille, published in English translation by Europa Editions. Many of your novels include a writer called Amélie Nothomb...— English Pen, Nov 26 2015![]()
Intoxication doesn’t just happen. It’s an art, one that requires talent and application. Haphazard drinking leads nowhere. While there is often something miraculous about the first time one gets really plastered, this is only thanks to proverbial beginner’s luck:...— Fiction Advocate, Nov 20 2015![]()
And that evening, when she informed me that she was going to be doing a signing in a prestigious Parisian bookstore, and I congratulated her, I saw her begin to fume with anger. I tried to get to the bottom of it. Out it came: “Those bourgeois booksellers ought to be...— Backlisted, Nov 10 2015![]()
At 108 pages, Pétronille is a slight, frothy bubble of a book, in Amélie Nothomb's signature lighthearted style. Though not quite what readers might expect from Nothomb, it's a genuinely funny and touching tribute to a friendship between two young female novelists in Paris.— Shelf-awareness, Nov 10 2015![]()
There’s a sense of the real Nothomb playing with some of her own demons, and the conclusion put a fulfilling cap on an already interesting story.— The Mookse and the Gripes, Nov 9 2015![]()
Amelie a succesful thirty-year-old novelist with a nearly religious passion for champagne, has just moved to paris. Alone in her transcendent state of inebriation, she goes in search of a congenial drinking companion and finds one in the form of the enigmatic Petronille Fanto.— ireadnovels, Oct 27 2015![]()
Successful 30-year-old novelist Amelie, newly moved to Paris, is searching for someone to share her great passion in life - drinking Champagne. She finds a friend in a younger woman who attends one of her bookshop signings, the enigmatic Petronille. United by their mutual love...— Daily Mail, Oct 16 2015![]()
Amélie Nothomb is a bestselling author of whom you’ve probably never heard. She’s Belgian and she’s wildly popular in France for her slightly eccentric, faintly autobiographical novels. She’s also a recognisable literary celebrity: her signature look involves black eyes,...— Emerald Street, Oct 8 2015![]()
Amelie Nothomb is a prize-winning Belgian writer who lives in Paris and has been much lauded in her career for experimenting and pushing boundaries in her fiction. Her latest work to be translated into English is a novella that sees a protagonist by the name of Amelie Nothomb,...— We love this book, Oct 8 2015![]()
“Intoxication doesn’t just happen. It’s an art,” Nothomb (Hygiene and the Assassin) writes in her latest novel, dripping with champagne and mischief. The protagonist, Nothomb, is a bibulous author in search of a “comvinion” (a drinking companion) and ends up with...— Publishers Weekly, Sep 17 2015![]()
Pétronille is narrated by an author matching Amélie Nothomb in all the essentials -- name, age, output -- and fits, more or less, in with the rest of Nothomb's autobiographical fiction (about every other novel). The novel covers almost two decades -- "My story begins in late...— CompleteReview.com, Jul 8 2015
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