Jörg Fauser, born in Germany in 1944, was a novelist, essayist and journalist. Having broken his dependency on heroin at the age of thirty he spent much of the rest of his working life dependent on alcohol. He nevertheless produced three successful novels, including 'The Snowman', and highly praised essays of literary criticism. On 16 July 1987 he had been out celebrating his forty-third birthday. At dawn, instead of going back to his home, he wandered on to a stretch of highway, by chance or by choice, and was struck down by a heavy-goods truck. He died instantly. Acclaimed as the best crime thriller ever written in German, 'The Snowman' sold over 200,000 copies and was made into a film.
