Born in Hartford, Connecticut to an Italian mother and a Belgian father, Christine Leunens has dual citizenship, New Zealand and Belgian. As a teenager Christine Leunens moved to Paris, France, where she had a close relationship with her grand-father, Guillaume Leunens, the Flemish painter. In Paris, Christine became an international print model and was the face of Givenchy, Paco Rabanne, Nina Ricci, Pierre Balmain and Sonia Rykiel. Her TV ads include Mercedes Benz, Suzuki and House of Fraser. During these years travelling around Europe, Asia and Africa, Christine combined modelling, studying and writing. She holds a Master of Liberal Arts in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University. Her Master's thesis, 'Henry James and the Late-Nineteenth Century Aristocracy under the Napoleonic Code: Madame de Vionnet and a Contextual Reading of The Ambassadors' won the Dean's Thesis Prize in the Humanities.
Christine Leunens’s first novel, Primordial Soup, was published by Dedalus Books in the UK in 1999 and received praise in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, Publishers Weekly and Scotland on Sunday. Her second novel, Caging Skies, was published by Random House, New Zealand in 2008 and received praise in the New Zealand Listener, NZ Women’s Weekly, El País, La Stampa, Le Nouvel Observateur and Le Monde. Taika Waititi’s film adaptation of it, Jojo Rabbit, made the Hollywood Black List and will be filmed mid-2018 with the backing of Fox Searchlight, a speciality division of 21st Century Fox. A play adaptation by Desiree Gezentzvey was directed by Andrew Foster at the Circa Theatre, Wellington, in August and September 2017. The French translation of Caging Skies was shortlisted for the Prix Médicis Étranger and the Prix du Roman FNAC.
Christine and her family made New Zealand their home in 2006 and maintain strong ties with Europe. In 2008 she received a Victoria University Doctoral Scholarship to work on her thesis ' Evolution of a Thorny Nature: Novels in English and the Mother-in-Law', for which she was awarded a PhD in Creative Writing in 2012. Her third novel, A Can of Sunshine, received a grant from the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa and was selected as 'Best Books of the Year 2013' by the NZ Herald. Her novels have been translated into over twelve languages.
Christine currently lives with her family in Nelson, where she is nearing completion of a fourth, historical Franco-New Zealand novel. She is also a violinist in the Nelson Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Nelson Astronomy Society.
Christine Leunens’s first novel, Primordial Soup, was published by Dedalus Books in the UK in 1999 and received praise in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, Publishers Weekly and Scotland on Sunday. Her second novel, Caging Skies, was published by Random House, New Zealand in 2008 and received praise in the New Zealand Listener, NZ Women’s Weekly, El País, La Stampa, Le Nouvel Observateur and Le Monde. Taika Waititi’s film adaptation of it, Jojo Rabbit, made the Hollywood Black List and will be filmed mid-2018 with the backing of Fox Searchlight, a speciality division of 21st Century Fox. A play adaptation by Desiree Gezentzvey was directed by Andrew Foster at the Circa Theatre, Wellington, in August and September 2017. The French translation of Caging Skies was shortlisted for the Prix Médicis Étranger and the Prix du Roman FNAC.
Christine and her family made New Zealand their home in 2006 and maintain strong ties with Europe. In 2008 she received a Victoria University Doctoral Scholarship to work on her thesis ' Evolution of a Thorny Nature: Novels in English and the Mother-in-Law', for which she was awarded a PhD in Creative Writing in 2012. Her third novel, A Can of Sunshine, received a grant from the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa and was selected as 'Best Books of the Year 2013' by the NZ Herald. Her novels have been translated into over twelve languages.
Christine currently lives with her family in Nelson, where she is nearing completion of a fourth, historical Franco-New Zealand novel. She is also a violinist in the Nelson Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Nelson Astronomy Society.