Jonathan Littell is a French writer and translator. He is best known for his 2006 novel Les Bienveillantes, which won the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Médicis. He has also written several other novels, including The Kindly Ones, The Road of Excess, and The Memory of the Flesh. He has translated works by authors such as William Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, and J.M. Coetzee. Littell is a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure and holds a doctorate in philosophy. He has also worked as a journalist and a humanitarian aid worker. His writing is often praised for its complexity and depth, and he is considered one of the most important French authors of the 21st century.