Born in Santiago de Chile in 1953, he studied in Vienna and since 1980 has lived in Spain, where he is a literary translator and writer. His work as a translator concentrates primarily on the writing of Austrian and Hungarian authors, such as Stefan Zweig, Karl Kraus, Arthur Schnitzler, Imre Kertész and László Krasznahorkai. He has also translated classics like Goethe and Franz Kafka.
He is also the author of books of essays and fiction: Guerra y lenguaje, Karl Kraus en los últimos días de la humanidad, El vuelo de Europa and Las leyes de la extranjería. He was awarded the Spanish ministry of culture’s national translation prize in 2010, the Austrian state prize for literary translation, also in 2010, and the Hungarian Balassi prize for literary translation in 2017. He is a member of the German academy of language and literature.
