Horst Bienek is known as the author of several novels drawn from his experiences as a political prisoner in the Soviet Union and as the chronicler of events in his native Upper Silesia during World War II. In addition, Bienek has made a name for himself as a literary critic and film producer.

Bienek was born in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia (now part of Poland), on 7 May 1930. His father, Hermann Bienek, was a railroad employee; his mother, Valeska Piontek Bienek, helped support the family by giving piano lessons. When he was sixteen his family moved to Köthen-Anhalt in the Soviet Zone. Bienek did not complete high school, but he read extensively for the next two years and developed a particular interest in the French symbolists Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and Mallarmé, who influenced his early writings. In 1948 he won a prize in a competition for young authors; at...