Titus Müller

Biography

Titus Müller was born 1977 in Leipzig. He studied literature, medieval history, media and communication studies in Berlin. 21 years old, he founded the literary journal, »Federwelt« [World of the Quill]. Titus Müller is married, has two boys and lives near Munich. He is member of the PEN-Club and received the C.S. Lewis Prize, the Sir Walter Scott Prize and in 2016 the Homer Prize. His novel The Foreign Spy made it onto the Spiegel bestseller list, and has also earned praise from intelligence agency insiders.

All about me

When I was a child, I exchanged greetings every morning with a man without knowing his name. I loved this habit. We never said a word: just a quick wave – enough to say »hello« between close friends. I have no idea where he went while I was at school, and I never saw him again after my last day. I created a new ritual while I was at the university: I had discovered a sign at the side entrance to the university campus that read: »Mail and Deliveries«. Bound by a silent agreement with myself, I only entered the campus through this back way. Following my last day, as if someone had been waiting for this occasion, the entry was locked with a wrought iron gate. Today the sign for »Mail and Deliveries« is worn and only partially legible. I only put books I have read in my bookshelves, never the unread ones. I don’t care if this separates books in a series: the unread ones don’t belong there yet. In my writing I submerge myself in the world of past centuries. By traveling through time to an era of epidemics, swords, and steam locomotives, I am able to see my own daily life through fresh eyes. We suffer from a lifestyle that rushes past us. We work, sleep, eat, work, sleep eat – and wish that we could hear a blackbird sing again in the mornings. We wish that we could watch ants drag a pine needle. We want to feel the wind that strokes our cheeks. All of that is still there in every day – the blackbird, the ants, the wind – it is only that we have become blind to it due to the speed of our lives. I collect things and hold them out to others to take. Small found objects: a marble, a feather, an old train ticket. I am a collector, a wonderer, a discoverer by trade.