Jürgen Becker was born in Köln, Germany, in 1932. He is the author of over thirty books--including drama, fiction, and poetry--all published by Suhrkamp, Germany's premier publisher. He has won numerous prizes, including the Heinrich Böll Prize, the Uwe Johnson Prize, the Hermann Lenz Prize, and the Georg Büchner Prize, the highest honor a German-language author can receive.