Irene Dische

Irene Dische (born February 13, 1952) is an American author and journalist, responsible for several international bestsellers.

Daughter to Jewish refugees, scientist Zacharias Dische and doctor Maria Renate Dische. Dische was born and raised in the Washington Heights district of New York City. As a teenager, she fled the regime of her stepfather Sig, only to end up in Libya during Col. Gaddafi's revolution. From there, Dische backpacked to Kenya, where she worked for famed paleontologist Louis Leakey. She returned to the United States in 1972. Back in her home country, she enrolled at Harvard University, majoring in Literature and Anthropology. After graduation, Dische worked as a freelance journalist, publishing in The New Yorker and The Nation. In the early 1980s, Dische moved to Berlin, Germany, a place where she still spends a considerable amount of time.

In 1986, Dische produced the documentary film Zacharias (1986). The film was based on her own script about her father, a Jew from Lemberg, who – having grown up in Vienna – fled to America through France to become one of the most distinguished biochemists of his generation. It was broadcast on the ZDF.

In 1989, Dische published her first novel Pious Secrets. The book became a Bestseller throughout Europe, and ended up being translated into 15 languages. In 1993, Dische made her first appearance as a children's author alongside co-writer Magnus Enzensberger, publishing Esterhazy, the tale of a hare searching for love in the Berlin of the late 1980s. Her next children's book, Zwischen zwei Scheiben Glück (1997; Eng. Between Two Seasons of Happiness, 1998) tells the tale of a young Jewish boy who, following Kristallnacht, was sent into exile by his father, to stay with his seemingly stern grandfather in Hungary. The novel was awarded the German Young People's Literature Award and was also released as an audio book. Dische's most recent novel was also her most successful one. "The Empress of Weehawken", Dische's autobiography told from the point of view of her grandmother, was released in 2005 to significant critical acclaim.

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