Daniel Kehlmann

Daniel Kehlmann is a German-language novelist and playwright of Austrian and German nationality, born 13 January 1975. His 2006 novel Die Vermessung der Welt (Measuring the World), translated by Carol Brown Janeway, became the best-selling book in the German language since Patrick Süskind's Perfume in 1985, and was ranked the world's second-best selling novel in 2006 by The New York Times. The novel examines the historical relationship between naturalist Alexander von Humboldt and mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss through an ironic lens.

All of Kehlmann's subsequent novels topped Germany's Spiegel bestseller list and were translated into English. He co-authored Franzen's 2013 book The Kraus Project with Jonathan Franzen and Paul Reitter. His theatrical output includes The Mentor and Christmas Eve, both translated by Christopher Hampton; The Mentor opened at Theatre Royal, Bath in April 2017 with F. Murray Abraham and transferred to London's West End in July 2017, while Christmas Eve premiered at Theatre Royal in October 2017. His 2016 novella You Should Have Left was adapted into a film starring Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried.

Kehlmann's 2017 novel Tyll, which sold over 600,000 copies in German alone and was published in the US in February 2020, is being adapted into a Netflix series by the creators of Dark; it was shortlisted for the 2020 International Booker Prize. In 2026, Ross Benjamin's English translation of Kehlmann's 2023 novel Lichtspiel (titled The Director) was also shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. His play Die Reise der Verlorenen was adapted for BBC radio by Tom Stoppard as The Voyage of the St. Louis.

As a screenwriter and writer active since the early 2000s, Kehlmann blends historical fiction, philosophical inquiry, and theatrical experimentation. A Capricorn born in 1975, his life-path number 9 reflects a pattern of synthesis and closure—distilling entire intellectual epochs into singular, elegant narratives [F1, enrichments].