At the age of six years, Wells went to the first of three state Bavarian boarding schools, in which he spent his entire school years. He said that it was that early because one of his parents became ill and couldn't take care of him and the other one was self-employed and in financial trouble and had to work all the time. Following his graduation from high school in 2003, he moved to Berlin where he decided not to go to university but to pursue his writing instead. He made a living doing odd jobs. His first novelBecks letzter Sommer received widespread acclaim and was described by Die Zeit as "the most interesting debut of the year." His third novel Fast genial became a bestseller in Germany in 2011. In 2015 the screen adaptation of Becks letzter Sommer was released in cinemas starring Christian Ulmen. Wells' fourth novel Vom Ende der Einsamkeit was published in February 2016. It remained on the German bestseller list for more than 80 weeks and awarded the European Union Prize for Literature. His books have been translated into 27 languages.
Family
He was born Benedict von Schirach and is a member of the SorbianSchirach noble family. He is the brother of the philosopher and writer Ariadne von Schirach, a cousin of the author Ferdinand von Schirach, the son of the sinologist Richard von Schirach and a grandson of the Nazi youth leader and war criminalBaldur von Schirach. Wells is no pseudonyme or pen name, he officially changed his surname some years before his literary debut. His family background did not become publicly known until after the success of his third novel. Wells has since commented that this happened against his will because he wanted to be independent as an author and to be judged based on his own person. He said that he changed his name to distance himself from what his German grandfather had done and this part of his family's history, which he condemns in any possible way, and that he wanted to show that he stands for something else. He further said the name Wells is a tribute to the character Homer Wells in John Irving's novel The Cider House Rules, and that Irving's books inspired him to become a writer. Wells' mother is Swiss, he holds both German and Swiss citizenship. He has an American great-grandmother and American and English ancestry and descends from two signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence.
