Clemens Meyer was born in 1977 in Halle and lives in Leipzig. Bricks and Mortar, his first novel to be published in English by Fitzcarraldo Editions, was shortlisted for the German Book Prize, awarded the Bremer Literaturpreis 2014, longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize, and shortlisted for the 2019 Best Translated Book Awards. His collection of stories, Dark Satellites, appeared with Fitzcarraldo Editions in Katy Derbyshire's translation in 2020. While We Were Dreaming (Als wir traumten), Meyer's debut novel, was originally published in Germany in 2007.
'A book like a fist... German literature has not seen such a debut for a long time, a book full of rage, sadness, pathos and superstition.' - Felicitas von Lovenberg, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ''[Meyer's] stripped-back prose is suffused with meaning.' - The Arts Desk '[Meyer] is one of the strongest German writers.' - Heinrich Oemsen, Hamburger Abendblatt 'Clemens Meyer's great art of describing people takes the form of the Russian doll principle: a story within a story within a story. ... So much is so artfully interwoven that his work breaks the mould of the closed narrative.' - Katharina Teutsch, Die Zeit