Hitomi Kanehara

Hitomi Kanehara was born in Tokyo on 8 August 1983. She stopped attending school at the age of 11. After she left home as a teenager, she sent her stories by email to her literary translator father who helped her edit them. At the age of 21 she wrote SNAKES AND EARRINGS which won the 2004 Akutagawa Prize, the top Japanese literary award. One of the judges, the celebrated writer Ryu Murakami, said her book was 'easily the top choice, receiving the highest marks of any work since I became a member of the selection panel'. The Japanese edition of SNAKES AND EARRINGS has sold over a million copies, topping all the bestseller lists. AUTOFICTION is her second work to be published in English.

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Agent: Jessica Woollard