Thomas Glavinic (born 2 April 1972 inGraz) is anAustrian writer. WithKathrin Röggla andDaniel Kehlmann, he is among other contemporary Austrian authors being perceived as significantly shaping the literary discussion in Austria.
The former writer of advertising copy and taxi driver emerged with his 1998 debut novelCarl Haffner's Love of the Draw. The novel describes the life ofchess masterCarl Schlechter. The book received several awards and has been translated into other languages, but did not make it onto the bestseller lists. The novel hasautobiographical aspects: Thomas Glavinic played his first chess game at the age of five and in 1987 he achieved second place in the Austrian chess rankings for his age group.
The novelHerr Susi (Mr. Susi) followed in 2000. Written in hard prose, it is a statement against thefootball business, and received mainly negative reviews from the critics. In 2001, thecriminal novelDer Kameramörder (The Camera Murderer) (awarded theFriedrich-Glauser-Prize at theCriminale) was published and was enthusiastically celebrated by thefeuilletons due to its criticism of the media. In 2004, Glavinic succeeded in convincing both critics (no. 1 on theORF critics best list) and readers (no. 1 on the Austrianbestseller list) with his satiric development-novelWie man leben soll (How to Live), written from the perspective of the indefinite "one". In August 2006, the novelDie Arbeit der Nacht (Night Work) was released and scored no. 1 on the critic's list again in the same month. His novel,Das bin doch ich (That's Me), appeared in summer of 2007 and was nominated for theGerman Book Prize. It made it onto the short list, a selection of six of the twenty authors originally chosen.
Thomas Glavinic is married and lives with his wife and son inVienna.
Glavinic's novels have been translated into English, French, Dutch, Italian, Finnish and Estonian.