1967 Amélie Nothomb was born in Kobe, Japan. Her father was the Belgian ambassador and she joined a family notable for its writers and politicians. Experiences of Japan and childhood later informed the novel Métaphysique des tubes.
Because of her father’s occupation, much of Nothomb’s childhood was spent abroad, in places as diverse as China, Laos, Bangladesh, Burma and America.

1972-1975 Nothomb arrived in China from Japan at age five and the family lived in the multinational diplomatic enclave of San Li Tun in Peking. Le Sabotage amoureux drew on experiences of this time, detailing alliances and conflicts between the area’s children when the notorious ‘Gang of Four’ ruled China.

The sudden transition from a Japanese culture whose elevated sense of aesthetics demanded beauty in everything to a Peking saturated with ugliness during the Cultural Revolution has informed both the themes of Nothomb’s writing and her personal worldview. She has claimed that a harsh binary division between the gorgeous and the grotesque along with nostalgia for a lost beauty was coded into her perceptions at this time.

1975-1977 After leaving China, the family relocated to New York. However their stay in the West was brief as her father’s involvement with the United Nations led to a new post in Asia.

The family moved to Bangladesh where Nothomb experienced personal isolation and encountered extreme human misery. She had little in common with local children and forays into the street led her to see damaged and dead people lying abandoned. She has claimed since that this type of exposure prompted both a heightened sensitivity to social injustices and a desire to escape from such disturbing stimuli through reading. For example, in the leper house that their parents supported, she and her sister Juliette tried to effect a double insulation from the horrors around them by shutting themselves in the quiet room reserved for them and immersing themselves in literature.

Diplomatic postings to Laos (1980) and Burma (1982) followed Bangladesh. Lack of access to schools and established libraries meant that Nothomb’s formal education was sporadic. Her parents’ library furnished her with a wide range of books, which she read avidly. These included popular novels, ancient classics and canonical French texts by authors such as Diderot, Proust and Stendhal. She has identified these as key influences on her own writing, laying greater public claim to their literary kinship to that of contemporary Francophone writers. She was particularly fascinated by Stendhal’s Chartreuse de Parme, which became a distorting lens through which she tried to envision a Europe that was exotic in its remoteness from the isolated parts of Asia she inhabited. Perversely when she returned to Europe it could not live up to the fantasies she had projected onto it, although she now reports feeling more comfortable living in both Brussels and Paris.

1981-1984 Between 13 and 16 Nothomb suffered from anorexia, a condition prompted in part by her desire to hold back puberty, a state that appeared to her as ‘une monstrosité physique’ . Her weight at its lowest was 36 kilos and she suffered hair loss. Paradoxically, however, it was after she lost the childhood body she felt was a ‘perfect’ fit for her, that age 17 she began to develop her voice as an author. She has also stated that she unconsciously took over this role from her admired sister Juliette, who had written previously but stopped when she also suffered anorexia.

Images of grotesque bodies figure largely in Nothomb’s writing and she has admitted freely that her depiction of the maturation of the female body is equivocal and disturbing. She has stated ‘je n’ai jamais regretté d’un quart de seconde d’être une femme’ . Yet she also famously declared ‘Prétextat Tach, c’est moi’, thus identifying herself with the protagonist of Hygiène de l’assassin who strangles his cousin Leopoldine to prevent her becoming a woman. However Nothomb contests the drawing of easy parallels between the depiction of violence in texts and its real-life equivalent. She has argued that the excessive, almost comedic violence of parts of her novels offers a relief from the potentially unassimilable horror of real-life suffering, while leaving space to think through actual conflicts. Given her large teenage readership this approach seems to resonate with a generation troubled increasingly by body dysmorphia. Nevertheless, some feminist critics have remained less convinced by her apologetics and have criticized her texts’ lack of explicit condemnation of the conflation of the womanly and the grotesque, which can also inform real acts of violence against women.

1984 At 17 Nothomb started a course in the philology of Romance languages at Brussels’ autonomous university. However she tended to feel alienated by the apparent conformism of Belgian society. She cites Nietzsche as a key influence at that time.

In 1988 Nothomb returned to Japan to seek work as a translator. She fell in love and became engaged to a Japanese man, although ultimately she did not marry him. Employment in a hierarchical Japanese company proved stressful, an experience that informed Stupeur et tremblements. She went back to Europe and started work in earnest on Hygiène de l’assassin.

As noted, Nothomb has written since her late teens. She has stressed frequently how important the act of writing is to her and claims to retain many unpublished manuscripts. Hygiène de l’assassin was her first published novel, issued in 1992 by Albin Michel.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s she has published prolifically. A bibliography of her major works is included below. Her writing has been translated into up to 30 languages, with some texts also being adapted for film, theatre and opera. Her books feature regularly in French bestseller lists.
Several have also gained literary prizes including the Grand Prix de l’Academie Française:

1992 Hygiène de l’assassin won the Prix Alan Fournier and the Prix René Fallet.
1995 Les Catilinaires was awarded the Prix Pas Première and the Prix du Jury Jean-Giono
1999 Le Sabotage amoureux won the Prix de la Vocation and the Prix Chardonne.
1999 Stupeur et tremblements gained the Grand Prix de l’Academie Française and the newly instituted Prix Internet du Livre. Nothomb became the first author to win this second award.

Hygiène de l’assassin (Paris: Albin Michel, 1992).

Le Sabotage amoureux (Paris: Albin Michel, 1993).

Les Combustibles (Paris: Albin Michel, 1994).

Les Catilinaires (Paris: Albin Michel 1995).

Péplum (Paris: Albin Michel, 1996).

Attentat (Paris: Albin Michel, 1997).

Mercure (Paris: Albin Michel 1998).

Stupeur et tremblements (Paris: Albin Michel 1999) [Grand Prix de l'Academie Française and Prix Internet du Livre].

Brillant comme une casserole (Bruxelles: La Pierre d'Alun 1999) [children's stories (for adults) with woodcut images; with Kiki Crèvecoeur].

Métaphysique des tubes (Paris: Albin Michel 2000).

Cosmétique de l’ennemi (Paris: Albin Michel 2001).

Sans nom (Paris: HFA 2001) [short story published with Elle (France edition) (July 2001)].

Robert des noms propres (Paris: Albin Michel 2002).

Antéchrista (Paris: Albin Michel 2003).

Biographie de la faim (Paris: Albin Michel 2004).

Acide sulfurique (Paris: Albin Michel 2005).

Journal d'Hirondelle (Paris: Albin Michel, 2006).

Ni d'Éve ni d'Adam (Paris: Albin Michel, 2007).

The Stranger Next Door (Les Catilinaires), trans. Carol Volk (New York:
Henry Holt and Co., 1998).

Loving Sabotage (Le Sabotage amoureux), trans. Andrew Wilson (New York: W.W. Norton, 2001).

Fear and Trembling (Stupeur et tremblements), trans. Adriana Hunter (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002).

The Character of Rain (Métaphysique des tubes), trans. Timothy Bent (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002).

Human Rites (Les Combustibles), trans. Natalie Abrahami (London: Oberon Books, 2005)

Ahmad, Nusrat, 'Amélie Nothomb et le surréalisme bruxellois', in Railissimo; magazine de la SNCB, (1999).

Amanieux, Laureline, 'Un entretien avec Amélie Nothomb' (27 April 2001) Available online at <http://www.membres.lycos.fr/fenrir/nothomb.htm> Accessed 22 October 2003.

Berto, Michel, Interview in Bruxelles, ma région, 2 <http://www.bruxelles-maregion.com> (Accessed 20 October 2003).

Bourton, William, 'Amélie chez les doux-dingues', Le Soir, (14 March 1998).

Le Brun, Corinne, 'Amélie, Madame pipi des Nippons', Le Soir illustré, <http://www.lycos.fr/fenrir/nothomb.htm> (Accessed 20 October 2003).

Lee, Mark D., 'Entretien avec Amélie Nothomb', The French Review, 7.3 (February 2004), 562-75.

Lortholary, Isabelle, 'Amélie Nothomb: Chapeau noir pour manteau bleu', Elle (July 30 2001).

Tombeur, Madeleine and others, 'Amélie Nothomb et Christine Delmotte', Le Logographe, (3 April 1998), <http://membres.lycos.fr/fenrir/nothomb.htm>.

Turpin, Etienne, 'Une histoire belge á la sauce nippone', Top Ouest, <http://membres.lycos.fr/fenrir/nothomb.htm> (Accessed 20 October 2003).

‘J’ai un ennemi en moi’, Psychologies magazine (2000) <http://membres.lycos.fr/fenrir/nothomb.htm>.

Amanieux, Laureline, 'Des romans à double-fonds', La Revue française, 12 (December 2001), 149-56.

—'La présence de Dionysos dans l'œuvre d'Amélie Nothomb' Religiologiques, 25 (spring 2002).

—'Lecture analytique del'incipit du Sabotage amoureux', L'École des lettres, 11 (15 March 2002), 39-54.

—'The myth of Dionysus in Amélie Nothomb's work', in Susan Bainbrigge and Jeanette Den Toonden (eds.), Amélie Nothomb: Authorship, Identity and Narrative Practice (New York: Peter Lang, 2003), pp. 135-141. [Amended version of article in Religiologiques 25 - see above].

— Amélie Nothomb: l'éternelle affamée (Paris: Albin Michel 2005).

— 'Amour, meurtre, et langage, dans l'oeuvre d'Amelie Nothomb', L'Esprit Createur ('A new generation: sex, gender and creativity in contemporary women's writing in French', special issue, ed. Gill Rye) 45.1 (Spring 2005).

Bainbrigge, Susan, '"Monter l'escalier anachronique"': intertextuality in Mercure', in Susan Bainbrigge and Jeanette Den Toonden (eds.), Amélie Nothomb: Authorship, Identity and Narrative Practice (New York: Peter Lang, 2003), pp. 114-126.

Bainbrigge, Susan and Den Toonden, Jeanette (eds.), Amélie Nothomb: Authorship, Identity and Narrative Practice (New York: Peter Lang, 2003)

Caine, Philippa, '"Entre-deux" inscription of female corporealilty in the writing of Amélie Nothomb', in Susan Bainbrigge and Jeanette Den Toonden (eds.), Amélie Nothomb: Authorship, Identity and Narrative Practice (New York: Peter Lang, 2003), pp.71-84.

Campagnoli, Ruggero, 'Mercure d'Amélie Nothomb au sommet de tour livresque', Les Lettres belges au  présent, Actes du Congrès des Romanistes allemands (University of Osnabruck 17-30 September 1999)(Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2001), pp. 309-18.

Chevillot, Frederique, 'Antechristique, Amelie Nothomb: de rire, de guerre et des femmes dans Le Sabotage amoureux', Women in French Studies, special issue, 'Ecriture courante: critical perspectives on French and Francophone women', ed. Mary Rice-DeFosse and Cathy Yandell (2005), pp.158-67.

Chung, Ook, 'Une enfance épique', Liberté, 36,3,213, (June 1994), 221-226.

Clemmen, Yves-Antoine 'Où a quand même lieu la littérature francaise : situer Nothomb à la rentrée littéraire 2005', Contemporary French and Francophone Studies 11.4 (October 2007), pp. 481-8

Clisson, Isabelle, 'Le Japon d'Isabelle, Le Japon d'Amélie', Lesbia Magazine, 192 (April 2000), 29-31.

De Decker, Jacques, 'Amélie Nothomb', La Brosse à relire: Littérature belge d'aujourdhui (Avin/Hannut: Éd. Luce Wilquin, 1999), pp. 146-153.

Garcia,Daniel 'Les silences d'Amelie' (Lire, septembre 2006)
http://www.lire.fr/enquete.asp?idc=50370&idR=200&idG=3

Gascoigne, David, 'Amélie Nothomb and the poetics of excess', in Susan Bainbrigge and Jeanette Den Toonden (eds.), Amélie Nothomb: Authorship, Identity and Narrative Practice (New York: Peter Lang, 2003), pp. 127-134.

Gorrara, Claire, 'Speaking volumes: Amélie Nothomb's Hygiene de l'Assassin', Women's Studies International Forum, 23 (6) (2000), 761-66.

—'L'Assassinat de l'écriture: Amélie Nothomb's Les Combustibles', in Susan Bainbrigge and Jeanette Den Toonden (eds.), Amélie Nothomb: Authorship, Identity and Narrative Practice (New York: Peter Lang, 2003), pp. 105-113.

Guyot-Bender, Martine, 'Coding Japan: Amelie Nothomb and Alain Corneau's Stupeur et tremblements', Sites: Contemporary French and Francophone Studies 9.4 (Fall 2005), pp. 367-76.

— 'Amélie Nothomb's dialectic of the sublime and the grotesque', in Novels of the Contemporary Extreme, ed. Alain-Philippe Durand and Naomi Mandel, (London & New York: Continuum, 2006).

Helm, Yolande, 'Amélie Nothomb: "l'enfant terrible" des lettres belges de langue française', Etudes Francophones, 11(1996), 113-120.

—'Amélie Nothomb: Une écriture alimentée à la source de l'orphisme', Religiologiques, 15 (spring 1997), 151-63.

Hutton, Margaret-Anne, '"Personne n'est indispensible, sauf l'ennemi": l'œuvre conflictuelle d'Amélie Nothomb', in Nathalie Rodgers and Catherine Rodgers (eds.), Nouvelles Écrivains: nouvelles voix?(Amsterdam: Rodolphi, 2002), pp.111-127.

Korzeniowska, Victoria B., 'Identification, identity and allegiance in Amelie Nothomb's Stupeur et tremblements and Metaphysique des tubes', Women in French Studies, special issue, 'Ecriture courante: critical perspectives
on French and Francophone women', ed. Mary Rice-DeFosse and Cathy Yandell (2005), pp.168-79.

Jaccomard, Hélène, 'Self in fabula: Amélie Nothomb's three autobiographical works', in Susan Bainbrigge and Jeanette Den Toonden (eds.), Amélie Nothomb: Authorship, Identity and Narrative Practice (New York: Peter Lang, 2003), pp. 11-23.

Jordan, Shirley Ann, 'Amélie Nothomb's combative dialogues: erudition, wit and weaponry', in Susan Bainbrigge and Jeanette Den Toonden (eds.), Amélie Nothomb: Authorship, Identity and Narrative Practice (New York: Peter Lang, 2003), pp.93-104.

— Contemporary French Women's Writing: Women's Visions, Women's Voices, Women's Lives (Oxford and Bern: Peter Lang, 2004).

Korzeniowska, Victoria B., 'Bodies, space and meaning in Amélie Nothomb's Stupeur et tremblements', in Susan Bainbrigge and Jeanette Den Toonden (eds.), Amélie Nothomb: Authorship, Identity and Narrative Practice (New York: Peter Lang, 2003), pp.39-49.

Korzeniowska, Victoria B., 'Identification, identity and allegiance in Amelie Nothomb's Stupeur et tremblements and Metaphysique des tubes', Women in French Studies, special issue, 'Ecriture courante: critical perspectives on French and Francophone women', ed. Mary Rice-DeFosse and Cathy Yandell (2005), pp.168-79.

Le Garrec, Lénaïk, 'Beastly beauties and beautiful beasts' in Susan Bainbrigge and Jeanette Den Toonden (eds.), Amélie Nothomb: Authorship, Identity and Narrative Practice (New York: Peter Lang, 2003), pp.63-70

Lee, Mark D., 'Amélie Nothomb: writing childhood's end', in Susan Bainbrigge and Jeanette Den Toonden (eds.), Amélie Nothomb: Authorship, Identity and Narrative Practice (New York: Peter Lang, 2003), pp. 143-153.

Libens, Christian, 'Chère Amélie', Revue Générale, 131 (3) (March 1996), 91-95.

McIlvanney, Siobhan, '"Il etait une fois...": Trauma and the Fairytale in Amelie Nothomb's Robert des noms propres', Dalhousie French Studies 81 (Winter 2007), (Special Issue: Representations of Trauma in French and Francophone Literature), pp 19-28.

Pries, Désirée, 'Piscina: gender identity in Métaphysique des tubes', in Susan Bainbrigge and Jeanette Den Toonden (eds.), Amélie Nothomb: Authorship, Identity and Narrative Practice (New York: Peter Lang, 2003), pp.24-35.

Rice, Alison,'"Que faire du corps?" La maitrise de soi dans Robert des noms propres d'Amelie Nothomb', Nouvelles Études Francophones 20.2 (Autumn 2005).

Rodgers, Catherine, 'Nothomb's anorexic beauties' in Susan Bainbrigge and Jeanette Den Toonden (eds.), Amélie Nothomb: Authorship, Identity and Narrative Practice (New York: Peter Lang, 2003), pp.50-63.

Terrace, Jean-Marc 'Does monstrosity exist in the feminine? A reading of Amélie Nothomb's angels and monsters', in Susan Bainbrigge and Jeanette Den Toonden (eds.), Amélie Nothomb: Authorship, Identity and Narrative Practice (New York: Peter Lang, 2003), pp.85-90.

Wilwerth, Evelyne, 'Amélie Nothomb: sous le signe du cinglant', Revue Générale, 132 (6-7) (June-July 1997), 45-51.

Forthcoming

Amanieux, Laureline, 'Amour, meutre, et langage, dans l'oeuvre de Amélie Nothomb', L'Esprit Createur (special issue, 'A new generation: sex, gender and creativity in contemporary women's writing in French', ed. Gill Rye) (spring 2005).

Albin Michel <http://www.albin-michel.fr> Publisher's site.

Amazon.fr: Auteurs: Amélie Nothomb <http://www.livresse.com/Auteurs/nothomb-amelie.shtml> Access to brief bibliography and some reviews of Nothomb's major works on Amazon France.

Amélie Nothomb Culture Forum http://amelienothomb.cultureforum.net/

Amélie Nothomb sur le web <http://membres.lycos.fr/fenrir/nothomb.htm> Special interest site with an extensive range of interviews collated from journals and magazines.

Complete Review: Nothomb <http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/nothomba/> Access to reviews of Nothomb's work from this online literary journal.

Mademoiselle Nothomb <http://www.mademoisellenothomb.com> Special interest site with details of major works, book tours and links to related literary topics.

Online version of Yolanda Helm's (1996) journal article [See above] <http://membres.lycos.fr/nothomb/articlehelm.htm>

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