Jonathan Littell is a famous writer living in Barcelona. After receiving a bachelor's degree, he worked for nine years in a humanitarian organization, but in 2001 decided to quit and focus on literary activity. His first novel, “Benefactors, ” written in French, became a worldwide bestseller. In addition, Littell tried himself several times as a documentary director. The film "Wrong Elements", which Jonathan directed in 2016, was praised by the jury of the Cannes Film Festival.
Early biography
The Littell family has Russian-Jewish roots. At the end of the 19th century, Jonathan's grandparents immigrated to America from Russia. The boy was born in New York, but at the age of three he moved with his parents to France. Here, the future writer graduated from high school, and then returned to the United States to study at the prestigious Yale University. It was during his studies that Littell wrote the first book, entitled "Bad Tension." At the same time, he accidentally met with popular author William Burroughs. A well-known essayist invited the young man to get acquainted with the work of such great writers as Louis Ferdinand Céline, Samuel Beckett and Maurice Blanchot. Subsequently, Jonathan acquired all the necessary literature and for several months immersed himself in the study of the work of the masters of the word. Read works later had a strong influence on the author’s syllable.
In 1994, Jonathan Littell stopped writing his books and joined the ranks of the international humanitarian organization, Fighting Hunger. Together with other specialists, he worked in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chechnya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Russia. In January 2001, Littell was the victim of a Chechen ambush, during which he was slightly injured. Since then, he decided to quit charity to focus on writing.
Career
A few years later, Jonathan received French citizenship and was able to maintain American. In 2006, he officially released his new book, "Benefactors." The novel tells the story of the Second World War and, in particular, the Eastern Front. In his literary work, Littell collected fictional memories of an eloquent officer named Maximilian Aue. At one of the presentations, Jonathan said that the writing of the book was inspired by a photograph of Zoe Kosmodemyanskoy. The author was struck by the biography of the Soviet partisan who died tragically at the hands of fascist invaders. In addition, he took part of the ideas from Claude Lantsman’s film “The Shoah, ” which is dedicated to the Holocaust. For his historical novel in 2006, Littell won the prestigious Goncourt Prize and the French Academy Festival Grand Prix. By the end of 2007, more than 700 thousand copies of the book were sold in France.
However, Jonathan was always interested in the secrets of the Third Reich. He read more than a hundred books about German generals and the fascist actions of the Nazis. Following the publication of The Benefactors, Littell directed the documentary Wrong Elements, in which he interviewed former German child soldiers. The film was shown out of competition at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. The jury was amazed when they learned that this is Jonathan's first directorial work. The picture was shot so high-quality that the main film critics hardly believed that Littell was just starting to take the first steps in a big movie.
Interestingly, Jonathan Littell is far from satisfied with all of his creative work. So, for example, he considers his first sci-fi novel about cyberpunk "Bad Voltage" to be extremely unsuccessful. On the pages of this work, the writer told the story of a hero living in futuristic Paris. Despite self-criticism, the book "Bad Tension" is still very popular in France and America.
In addition, Littell was engaged in intelligence activities in Russia. He published several detailed reports on Russian security agencies. In particular, Jonathan made an attempt to assess the situation in Chechnya. The writer came to the conclusion that now the political system in the country is designed in such a way as to protect society from any manifestation of freedom.
