Herta Muller was born in Timis, Romania in 1953. A vocal memeber of the German minority, she was forced to leave the country in 1987. In that year, she went to west Berlin where she now lives. She was recently awarded the prestigious Ricarda-Huch Prize. Her books have been translated into all European languages - this edition of The Passport is the first publication of Herta Muller in English.
Esther Kinskyis a poet, writer, and translator working in German, Polish, Russian and English.Martin Chalmers is a Berlin-based translator from Glasgow. He has translated some of the best-known German-language writers, including Herta Mller, Elfriede Jelinek, and Hans Magnus Enzensberger.