Jurek Becker was born in Lódz, Poland. The exact date of his birth is unknown, because, while the family was living in the Lódz ghetto, his father made him out to be older in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent him from being deported. From 1939 until 1945, Jurek Becker was a prisoner in the concentration camps of Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen. After the war, Becker's father took him to East Berlin, where they were among the few surviving Jews who chose to stay in Germany. An acclaimed screenwriter and novelist, Becker won several literary prizes including the Heinrich-Mann and the Charles Veillon Prizes for Jacob the Liar . He is also the author of the novels Sleepless Days, Bronstein's Children, and The Boxer as well as the collection The Wall . He died in 1997. Leila Vennewitz was the distinguished translator of Heinrich Böll and other postwar German writers, including Jurek Becker and Martin Walser.

She won numerous awards for her translations. She died in 2007. Louis Begley is the award-winning author of Wartime Lies , About Schmidt , and many other acclaimed novels and works of nonfiction.