Christine Leunens is a Belgian-New Zealand novelist, whose mother hails from Puglia, Italy, and late father, from Brussels. As a teenager she moved to Paris, where her grandfather, Guillaume Leunens, a Flemish artist, resided. He had been taken by the Nazis into a forced labour camp, as had her Italian grandfather, a clarinetist, leading to family tragedy that would later influence her writing. She and her paternal grandfather spent much time together in Paris during the last years before his death and his views on art and the struggles of the artist have remained with her.
She funded her university studies and early writing by modelling in Europe, posing for Givenchy, Paco Rabanne, Nina Ricci, Pierre Balmain, Sonia Rykiel and acting in TV ads such as Mercedes Benz, Suzuki, House of Fraser. She went on to earn a Master of Liberal Arts in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University Extension School in 2005, and a PhD at Victoria University of Wellington in 2012.
Her debut novel, Primordial Soup, published in the UK in 1999, was a critical success, receiving praise in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, Repubblica, Publishers Weekly, Dutch Marie Claire and Italian Vogue. Since its first publication in 2004, Caging Skies has become an international bestseller. In 2007 the French translation was nominated for the Prix Médicis Étranger and the Prix du Roman FNAC. Her next novel, A Can of Sunshine, was selected as 'Best Books of the Year 2013' in English worldwide by the NZ Herald.
Over time, Caging Skies was adapted to stage and film. The play adaptation, written by Desirée Gezentzvey, had its world premiere at the Circa Theatre, Wellington in 2017 and was performed in Tokyo in December 2024. Taika Waititi’s film adaptation, Jojo Rabbit, was nominated in 2020 for two Golden Globes, six BAFTA Awards and six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It won a WGA Award, a British Academy Film Award as well as an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and ultimately was selected as one of WGA's 101 greatest screenplays of the 21st Century. It also won the Humanitas Prize for writing intended to promote human dignity, meaning and freedom. Both the film and the book were nominated for the USC Scripter Award 2020 and won AFI Awards for their contribution to America's Cultural Legacy.
In Amber's Wake was first published in New Zealand in 2022, became an instant bestseller, and has since gone into translation worldwide. Leunens was awarded a UNESCO - Prague City of Literature Residency to work on a new historical novel at the Franz Kafka House in March and April 2023. She then returned to France and began an extended European book tour for In Amber’s Wake. A film adaptation of the novel is in development.
Leunens received the Apoxiomeno Prize for Literature 2024 at the 28th International Police Award Arts Festival (IPAAF) in Montepulciano, Italy.
Her novels have been translated into twenty-five languages.
She funded her university studies and early writing by modelling in Europe, posing for Givenchy, Paco Rabanne, Nina Ricci, Pierre Balmain, Sonia Rykiel and acting in TV ads such as Mercedes Benz, Suzuki, House of Fraser. She went on to earn a Master of Liberal Arts in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University Extension School in 2005, and a PhD at Victoria University of Wellington in 2012.
Her debut novel, Primordial Soup, published in the UK in 1999, was a critical success, receiving praise in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, Repubblica, Publishers Weekly, Dutch Marie Claire and Italian Vogue. Since its first publication in 2004, Caging Skies has become an international bestseller. In 2007 the French translation was nominated for the Prix Médicis Étranger and the Prix du Roman FNAC. Her next novel, A Can of Sunshine, was selected as 'Best Books of the Year 2013' in English worldwide by the NZ Herald.
Over time, Caging Skies was adapted to stage and film. The play adaptation, written by Desirée Gezentzvey, had its world premiere at the Circa Theatre, Wellington in 2017 and was performed in Tokyo in December 2024. Taika Waititi’s film adaptation, Jojo Rabbit, was nominated in 2020 for two Golden Globes, six BAFTA Awards and six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It won a WGA Award, a British Academy Film Award as well as an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and ultimately was selected as one of WGA's 101 greatest screenplays of the 21st Century. It also won the Humanitas Prize for writing intended to promote human dignity, meaning and freedom. Both the film and the book were nominated for the USC Scripter Award 2020 and won AFI Awards for their contribution to America's Cultural Legacy.
In Amber's Wake was first published in New Zealand in 2022, became an instant bestseller, and has since gone into translation worldwide. Leunens was awarded a UNESCO - Prague City of Literature Residency to work on a new historical novel at the Franz Kafka House in March and April 2023. She then returned to France and began an extended European book tour for In Amber’s Wake. A film adaptation of the novel is in development.
Leunens received the Apoxiomeno Prize for Literature 2024 at the 28th International Police Award Arts Festival (IPAAF) in Montepulciano, Italy.
Her novels have been translated into twenty-five languages.