Jorg Fauser, born in 1944 in Germany, was a novelist, essayist and journalist. Having broken his dependency on heroin at the age of thirty he spent much of the rest of his working life dependent on alcohol. He nevertheless produced three highly successful novels including The Snowman and much praised essays of literary criticism. On July 16th 1987 he had been celebrating his forty third birthday. At dawn, instead of going back to his home in Munich, he wandered on to a stretch of motorway, by chance or by choice, and was struck down by a truck. He died instantly.