Helena Janeczek

Helena Janeczek was born in Munich in 1964 to a Jewish-Polish family and moved to Italy in 1983. She writes in Italian. In 1989, she published the poetry collection “Ins Freie.” She became known in part for “Lezioni di tenebra” (1997; English: “Lessons in the Dark”), an autobiographically informed book about her mother’s memory of deportation to Auschwitz and its transmission to her daughter. It was followed by the novel “Cibo” (2002), as well as essays, short stories, and further novels. Her novel “La ragazza con la Leica” (2017; English: “The Girl with the Leica”) won the Premio Strega and was shortlisted for the Premio Campiello.