“She read and read and read, but she was stuffing herself with the letters on the page like an unhappy child stuffing itself with chocolate. They didn’t taste bad, but she was still unhappy.”

German author of children's fiction

Cornelia Funke is a German author of children’s fiction, known for fantasy novels for young readers. Born in 1958 in Dorsten, North Rhine-Westphalia, she first worked as a social worker and later as a book illustrator. She began writing novels in the late 1980s and built her career around stories in which children face hardship and danger. Her books have been translated into several languages, and by 2012 she had sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.