Benedict Wells

Benedict Wells
Benedict Wells, 2011
Born	Benedict von Schirach 1984 Munich
Nationality	German

Benedict Wells (born 1984 in Munich) is a German-Swiss novelist.

At the age of six years, Wells went to the first of three Bavarian boarding schools, in which he spent his entire school years. Following his graduation from high school in 2003, he moved to Berlin where he decided not to go to university but to pursue his writing instead. He made a living doing odd jobs. His first novel Becks letzter Sommer received widespread acclaim and was described by Die Zeit as "the most interesting debut of the year." His third novel Fast genial became a bestseller in Germany in 2011.

In 2015 the screen adaptation of Becks letzter Sommer was released in cinemas starring Christian Ulmen.

Wells' fourth novel Vom Ende der Einsamkeit was published in February 2016. It was a bestseller and awarded the European Union Prize for Literature.

He was born Benedict von Schirach, as a member of the Sorbian Schirach family, and is a son of the sinologist Richard von Schirach, the brother of the philosopher and writer Ariadne von Schirach, a cousin of the author Ferdinand von Schirach, and a grandson of the Nazi politician Baldur von Schirach. He changed his name to Benedict Wells some years before his literary debut. His family background did not become publicly known until after the success of his third novel, and he has since commented that this happened against his will, and that he changed his name to distance himself from his family's history and to be judged based on his own merits. He said the name Wells is a tribute to the character Homer Wells in John Irving's novel The Cider House Rules, and that Irving's books inspired him to become a writer. His mother is Swiss and Wells holds both German and Swiss citizenship. He also has American and English ancestry and descends from two signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence.