David Bellos

David Michael Bellos and was the co-founder and first director, from 2007, of its translation and intercultural communication program.

Early life and education Bellos was born in Rochford, England, on 25 June 1945, and educated in nearby Southend-on-Sea. He earned an undergraduate degree in medieval and modern languages (French and Russian) in 1967 and a D.Phil in French literature in 1971, both at the University of Oxford.

Other works include an introduction to translation studies, Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and The Meaning of Everything (2011) and Who Owns This Sentence. A History of Copyrights and Wrongs, written with Alexandre Montagu and published in 2024.

He translated much of the work of Perec into English, including the novel Life: A User's Manual.

Bellos won the first Man Booker International Prize for translation in 2005 for his translations of works by Albanian author Ismail Kadare, despite not speaking Albanian. His translations were done from previous French translations.

Personal life and death Bellos' marriages to Hélène Roth-Laszlo and Susan Lendrum ended in divorce. At the time of his death he was married to Pascale Voilley Bellos. He was the father of three children (and seven grandchildren), including writer and broadcaster Alex Bellos. David Bellos died at his vacation home in Doussard, France, on 26 October 2025, at the age of 80.

Awards and honours 1988 French-American Foundation prize for translation 1994 Prix Goncourt de la Biographie 2005 Man Booker International Prize, for translation of works by Ismail Kadare 2019 Howard T. Behrman Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Humanities, Princeton University

Publications

Translations Georges Perec: Life A User's Manual, 1987 (French-American Foundation's translation prize); new edition, 2008 Georges Perec: W, or the Memory of Childhood, 1988 Georges Perec: Things: A Story of the Sixties, 1990 Georges Perec: 53 Days, 1992 Ismail Kadare: The Pyramid, 1995 Ismail Kadare:The File on H, 1996 Georges Ifrah: A Universal History of Numbers, 2000 Ismail Kadare: Spring Flowers, Spring Frost, 2001 Fred Vargas: Have Mercy On Us All, 2003 Fred Vargas: Seeking Whom He May Devour, 2004 Ismail Kadare: The Successor, 2005 Ismail Kadare: Agamemnon's Daughter, 2006 Ismail Kadare: The Siege, 2008 Hélène Berr: Journal, 2008 Georges Perec: Thoughts of Sorts, 2009 Romain Gary: Hocus Bogus, 2010 Georges Perec: The Art and Craft of Approaching Your Head of Department to Submit a Request for a Raise, 2011 Georges Simenon: Pietr the Latvian, 2013 Daniel Anselme: On Leave, 2014 Ismail Kadare: Twilight of the Eastern Gods, 2014 Georges Perec: Portrait of a Man, 2014 (UK), 2015 (USA) Georges Perec: I Remember, 2014 (USA) (with Philip Terry) Paul Fournel, Dear Reader, 2014 (UK) Georges Simenon: The Pitards, 2015 Frédéric Dard, Bird in a Cage2016 (UK) Delphine Horvilleur, Anti-Semitism Revisited, 2021 (UK) Maxime Rovere, How To Deal With Idiots (and stop being one yourself), 2021 (UK) Victor Hugo, Seventeen Ninety-Three, forthcoming 2026 (UK)

Biographies Georges Perec. A Life in Words, 1993. (Prix Goncourt de la biographie). French edition, 1994. Japanese edition, 2014. Hebrew edition, 2016. New edition in French, 2022; German translation, 2023; Turkish and Chinese translations in progress. Jacques Tati: His Life and Art, 1999. French edition, 2002; Italian edition, 2022. German edition, 2024 Romain Gary. A Tall Story, Harvill Secker, November 2010

Other books Balzac Criticism in France, 1850–1900. The Making of a Reputation. Oxford, 1976 La Cousine Bette. A Critical Guide. London, 1981 Old Goriot (Landmarks of World Literature). Cambridge, 1987. Hebrew translation, Tek Aviv, 1990. Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything. London and New York, 2011. Paperback edition, 2012.French translation by Daniel Loayza as , Flammarion, 2012, republished in 2017 as La Traduction dans tous ses états. Spanish translation by Vicente Campos, as . Ariel, 2012. German translation by Silvia Morawetz as , Eichborn, 2013. Russian translation by Natalia Shahova, Azbuka, 2019. Traditional Chinese translation, Rye Field, Taipei, 2019. Also translated into Simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Persian. The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Misérables. London and New York, 2017. Korean edition, 2018. Japanese edition, 2018. Chinese edition, 2019 Who Owns This Sentence? A History of Copyrights and Wrongs. With Alexandre Montagu. London and New York, 2024. Italian edition 2024. Korean edition 2024. Spanish edition 2025.