Norbert Gstrein

Norbert Gstrein (born 1961) is an Austrian writer. He was born in Mils in Tyrol, the son of the hotelier and ski school director Norbert Gstrein (1931–1988) and Maria Gstrein, née Thurner (born 1935). He grews up with his five siblings in Vent (Sölden) and attended the secondary school from 1971 to 1979 in Imst. From 1979 to 1984, Gstrein studied mathematics in Innsbruck, Stanford and Erlangen. He not completed his PhD (no defense of his thesis Zur Logik der Fragen) in 1988 at the University of Innsbruck, under the supervision of Roman Liedl and Gerhard Frey.

Gstrein is the author of more than a dozen books, including Winters in the South, translated into English by Anthea Bell and Julian Evans, and A Sense of the Beginning, translated by Julian Evans. Gstrein's novels have been translated into more than a dozen languages. His early books were all based in his native Tyrol. Among his numerous awards are the Alfred Döblin Prize and the Uwe Johnson Prize.

Gstrein lives as a freelance writer in Hamburg.

Awards

 * 1989 Rauris Literature Prize
 * 1999 Alfred Döblin Prize
 * 2001 Literaturpreis der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
 * 2003 Uwe Johnson Prize
 * 2004 Franz Nabl Prize
 * 2013 Anton Wildgans Prize
 * 2021 Thomas Mann Prize