Jurek Becker, one of the most innovative authors of the German Democratic Republic, is perhaps best known abroad through the English translation of his best selling novel Jakob the Liar and the novel's belated Hollywood film adaptation under the same title (dir. Peter Kassovitz, 1999). Besides these international successes, Becker's highly original novelistic oeuvre – which is currently being translated into English – and his literary remembrance of the Holocaust made him an important presence in the cultural life of the German-speaking countries and beyond.
Jurek Becker (Jerzy Bekker) was born in Lódz in Poland around 1937 as the son of lower middle-class, secular Jewish parents. When he was still a small …
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Citation: Clarke, David. "Jurek Becker". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2005 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=6012, accessed 21 November 2024.]
