US author gets French citizenship
from Yahoo news
PARIS (AFP) - Jonathan Littell, the bilingual American author whose novel on the Holocaust "The Kindly Ones" was last year's literary hit in France, has been granted French citizenship, according to a notice posted in the official gazette.
The 39 year-old writer benefited from a clause in France's nationality code which allows the foreign minister to offer citizenship to French-speaking foreigners who "contribute by their outstanding work to spreading French influence."
Written in French, Littell's book -- the fictional memoires of a German SS officer on the eastern front -- has sold some 500,000 copies and won the 2006 Goncourt prize, France's top book award.
Before its success, Littell twice had his request for French citizenship turned down.
Littell, the son of the US thriller writer Robert Littell, spent much of his childhood in France
PARIS (AFP) - Jonathan Littell, the bilingual American author whose novel on the Holocaust "The Kindly Ones" was last year's literary hit in France, has been granted French citizenship, according to a notice posted in the official gazette.
The 39 year-old writer benefited from a clause in France's nationality code which allows the foreign minister to offer citizenship to French-speaking foreigners who "contribute by their outstanding work to spreading French influence."
Written in French, Littell's book -- the fictional memoires of a German SS officer on the eastern front -- has sold some 500,000 copies and won the 2006 Goncourt prize, France's top book award.
Before its success, Littell twice had his request for French citizenship turned down.
Littell, the son of the US thriller writer Robert Littell, spent much of his childhood in France
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