After graduating from high school, Enquist studied literature at Uppsala University. After completing his studies, he turned to journalism: he wrote for the features section of several newspapers and appeared as a presenter on cultural television programs. Enquist interrupted his journalistic work in Sweden in 1970 when he went to Berlin for a year with the help of a scholarship from the German Academic Foreign Service.

In 1973 he moved to the USA as a guest lecturer, where he also stayed for a year. After Enquist had been part of literary circles in Sweden for a long time, he switched completely to freelance writing in 1977. He had already published his first novel in 1961 under the title "The Crystal Eye". In 1979 Enquist published the novel "The Second".

With the historical novel "The Visit of the Personal Physician" (2001), which deals with the relationship between the doctor and politician Struensee and Queen Caroline of Denmark, the writer achieved an international breakthrough, including in Germany. His first children's novel "Grandfather and the Wolves" was published in 2003. Enquist received the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 1969 and the German Book Prize for International Fiction in 2002.

In 2003 he was awarded the LUCHS for his first children's novel. In the same year he also received the Nelly Sachs Prize from the city of Dortmund. In 2005, Enquist published his successful novel "The Book of Blanche and Marie", which, as a kind of fictional docu-drama, tells the story of real people with fictional elements and searches for explanations for love.

For this work, the Swedish writer was awarded the Corine Book Prize for fiction in Munich that same year.

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Per Olov Enquist

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