On Talking Germany the 42-year-old discusses the serious auto-immune disease that threatened his life and became the inspiration for his latest book. He also describes his new life after an organ transplant.

David Wagner was born in 1971 in Andernach. He has three sisters and a brother. At the age of 14, he was diagnosed as having chronic autoimmune hepatitis. Despite the massive impact on his life, he graduated from high school and studied comparative literature and art history at universities in Bonn, Berlin and Paris.  
His first novel, "My Midnight-Blue Trousers," was critically acclaimed and received the Dedalus Prize for Contemporary Literature. Five further books followed. Critics praise the intensity of his descriptions and his precise observation. As a young man, David Wagner was an enthusiastic yachtsman and, together with his brother, won several German championships in regatta sailing.  sailing. He lives in Berlin and has a daughter.