Barbara Frischmuth

Barbara Frischmuth (; 5 July 1941 – 30 March 2025) was an Austrian writer and translator. She travelled the world, open to other cultures, which influenced her works. Her first novel, Die Klosterschule, shows a student's experiences in a convent school, as well as a feminist attitude and criticism of authorities. She wrote two trilogies of novels in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as a series of "garden books" in the 2000s.

Life and career Frischmuth was born in Altaussee on 5July 1941. Her mother ran a hotel after her father had died as a soldier in Russia. She moved with her mother to Graz in 1956. She studied Turkish and English to be a translator, going to Erzurum in Anatolia in 1960 for a year to study Turkish on a scholarship. She invested the first money she earned as translator to buy Arno Schmidt's Zettels Traum. 2005 2019