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Anne Provoost is an author and was born in Belgium in 1964 and studied literature and education at the University of Leuven in Belgium. She spent a year and a half in the United States after completing her studies, writing her first novel, "My aunt is a Pilot Whale", while living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The book was published in Dutch in 1991 and translated into English three years later. Her second novel, "Falling", was published in Dutch in 1994.
It was translated into English by John Nieuwenhuizen in 1997 and later made into an English-language feature film. Provoost retold the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" in "The Rose and the Swine" (1997), transforming the familiar story into a saga of guilt and penance, mercy and justice. A similar metamorphosis occurs in "In the Shadow of the Ark", published in Dutch as "De Arkvaarders" in 2001.
It recounts the story of Noah and the ark, seen from the perspective of a teenage girl who was not 'chosen' to be on the ship. In the summer of 2004, "In the Shadow of the Ark" comes out in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.
Together Anne Provoost's four books have been translated into English, German, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, French, Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese, and have received practically every major literary award for works in Dutch, such as "Book Lion 1991", the "Interprovincial Prize for Children's and Youth Literature 1991", "The Golden Kiss" in the Netherlands, the "Luchs-award" of "Die Zeit" in Germany, the "Award of Young Readers" in Austria, and the "Lavki Award".
They have also been chosen for many international honours, including selection to the International Board on Books for Young People Honour List. Provoost was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature in 2003.
With their complex themes and sometimes critical points of view, her books would be expected to carry heavy messages; the author, however, denies this. "If you have to talk about a message, then I would like to limit myself to one thing: stretching the reader's empathic abilities," she says.
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