Anne Funde
Daniel Lee
Professor Gutowsky
English 300
4/7/14
The Reasons and Inspirations Anna Funder was an excellent writer and her novels are well anticipated for a good reason. Her first book, Stasiland, was translated into 16 different languages and won the Samuel Johnson Prize, which is a top level award in Britain. The novel was a personal inspection of East Germany’s shady secret service and its faith in Germany, and is an excellent novel that people everywhere should read even in Professor Gutowsky’s class. Judging from Anna Funder’s life it seemed that she would not write books about Germany, All That I Am and Stasiland. Anna Funder wanted to write since she was the age of six years old, but before she was a full time writer she was an international lawyer for the Australian Government focusing on human rights, constitutional law, and treaty negotiation. She was offered a promotion, with the possibility of moving into the foreign service. She quit her job and a year or two later took up an award as writer in residence in Berlin, where she started work on Stasiland, which is a book about post World War II Germany. Anna Funder has no German heritage and was born in Melbourne, Australia. She moved to San Fransico and then to France where she started school their at the age of six years old. At one point she wanted to be a forensic pathologist as a teenager. Her grandfather was a pathologist, and my father a doctor, and it didn’t seem such much of a stretch. However she dropped math and science so she knew it was not going to happen. Though what she had learned in investigation came in handy when writing her two novels, which was sparked after the Berlin wall had fallen. Her books are based upon an outsiders perspective because she has no German heritage, and at the same time is also based on an insider perspective from the people she knew in Germany and the interviews she has done. So Anna Funder got best of both world’s in her novels. The Germans are shameful of
Professor Gutowsky
English 300
4/7/14
The Reasons and Inspirations Anna Funder was an excellent writer and her novels are well anticipated for a good reason. Her first book, Stasiland, was translated into 16 different languages and won the Samuel Johnson Prize, which is a top level award in Britain. The novel was a personal inspection of East Germany’s shady secret service and its faith in Germany, and is an excellent novel that people everywhere should read even in Professor Gutowsky’s class. Judging from Anna Funder’s life it seemed that she would not write books about Germany, All That I Am and Stasiland. Anna Funder wanted to write since she was the age of six years old, but before she was a full time writer she was an international lawyer for the Australian Government focusing on human rights, constitutional law, and treaty negotiation. She was offered a promotion, with the possibility of moving into the foreign service. She quit her job and a year or two later took up an award as writer in residence in Berlin, where she started work on Stasiland, which is a book about post World War II Germany. Anna Funder has no German heritage and was born in Melbourne, Australia. She moved to San Fransico and then to France where she started school their at the age of six years old. At one point she wanted to be a forensic pathologist as a teenager. Her grandfather was a pathologist, and my father a doctor, and it didn’t seem such much of a stretch. However she dropped math and science so she knew it was not going to happen. Though what she had learned in investigation came in handy when writing her two novels, which was sparked after the Berlin wall had fallen. Her books are based upon an outsiders perspective because she has no German heritage, and at the same time is also based on an insider perspective from the people she knew in Germany and the interviews she has done. So Anna Funder got best of both world’s in her novels. The Germans are shameful of