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It is 125 years today since Yasunari Kawabata was born.
Yasunari Kawabata was a Japanese novelist and short story writer born in Osaka. He came from an educated, wealthy family, but he lost his parents at an early age and his only sibling, a sister, died when he was nine years old. These childhood traumas came to inform his writing. After growing up with his maternal grandfather in the countryside, Kawabata read English and Japanese literature at...
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It is 113 years today since Victor Canning was born.
Victor Canning was a British author of humorous adventure stories and thrillers. He was born in Plymouth, Devon. At the outbreak of the First World War, while his father was doing his military service, he went with his mother and siblings to live with his uncle in Calstock, a few miles north of Plymouth. This was where Canning fell in love with the English countryside, which features prominently...
Sample of Authors
![Författarporträtt av Koestler, Arthur](images/writer/952/952_20150129123926_Large.jpg)
Koestler, Arthur
1905 - 1983
The British author and journalist Arthur Koestler was born in Budapest to a Hungarian father and an Austrian mother who...
Further reading![Författarporträtt av Hamid, Mohsin](images/writer/4648/4648_20131026084208_Large.jpg)
Hamid, Mohsin
1971 -
Mohsin Hamid was born in Pakistan. His father was a first generation Pakistani born in 1947, the year of partition. Mohsin...
Further reading![Portrait image of Alexander McCall Smith](images/writer/3910/wm_BR_3910_20160205111455_Large.jpg)
McCall Smith, Alexander
1948 -
The British author Alexander McCall Smith – called Sandy by family and friends – was born in Bulawayo in the then British col...
Further reading![Portrait image of Paulo Coelho](images/writer/333/333.jpg)
Coelho, Paulo
1947 -
Brazilian author born in Rio de Janeiro. After dropping out of law school he started travelling around Latin America,...
Further reading