The German author and theatre director Jenny Erpenbeck grew up in central East Berlin where she still lives. Erpenbeck's maternal grandfather, Fritz Erpenbeck, was a dramaturge, journalist and author; her grandmother, Hedda Zinner, an award-winning novelist; her father, John Erpenbeck, is a prominent physicist, psychologist and novelist; Jenny's mother, Doris Kilias, was a linguist and translator specialising in Arabic. This literary family tradition is no weight on Erpenbeck's mind, however. For a long time she did not think that writing would be more than a sideline. She was encouraged by her parents to learn a profession so she could support herself before she started writing.