The Son and Heir: A Memoir

About Alexander Munninghoff

Alexander Münninghoff was born in Posen Poland in 1944. A journalist and expert on Russia he won the prize for newspaper journalism (a Dutch Pulitzer) and is the author of Tropical Years in Moscow about his time as a correspondent in the Soviet Union. A passionate chess player Münninghoff wrote the biographies of Dutch chess grand master Jan Hein Donner and the chess master he dethroned former world champion Max Euwe. In the anti-German postwar years and throughout his career Münninghoff never told his friends or colleagues about his family the complex chronology of which he reveals in his memoir The Son and Heir. The book went on to win the prestigious Libris History Prize in 2015 and the Littéraire Witte Award in 2016. Kristen Gehrman earned a masters in language science and communication with a specialization in literary translation from the University of Lausanne Switzerland. Originally from the United States she now lives in The Hague where she works as a freelance translator editor and teacher. In addition to Alexander Münninghoffs The Son and Heir her many translation credits include the Dutch-to-English translation of Annejet van der Zijls bestselling novel The Boy Between Worlds. For more information visit www.kristengehrman.com.