Akif Pirinçci

Akif Pirinçci (pronunciation: [piːʁɪntʃi]) is a German writer of Turkish origin who is best known internationally for his novel Felidae.

Pirinçci was born on the 20th October 1959 in Istanbul, Turkey, but emigrated to Germany together with his parents in 1969. He began to write fiction at a young age, and published his first novel Tränen sind immer das Ende (literally, "tears always are the end") in 1980, at the age of 21. His next literary work, published in 1989, was the novel Felidae, a work of crime fiction with cats as the main protagonists. The novel has been translated into 17 languages and became an international bestseller. Due to the enormous success of the novel, Pirinçci expanded his concept of "cat crime fiction" and published several sequels to Felidae, out of which two, namely Francis (Felidae II) and Salve Roma, have been translated into English. An animated movie based on Felidae, the script of which had been co-written by Pirinçci, was produced in Germany in 1994, and was also dubbed in English. Pirinçci has published several other novels which were not set in the fictional reality of the Felidae series. Of these, his novel Die Damalstür -- based on which a movie was produced in Germany as well, and which is currently also under consideration for screen adaptation in Hollywood -- was recently translated and published in English under the title The Back Door.

Pirinçci currently lives in Bonn, the former capital of the Federal Republic of Germany.