Wolfgang Herrndorf was a German author, painter, and illustrator. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg, and after graduation, moved to Berlin to work as a magazine illustrator. Herrndorf frequently posted on the Internet forum Wir höflichen Paparazzi (We Polite Paparazzi).

In 2001, he joined the art and writing collective Zentrale Intelligenz Agentur, contributing to their blog, Riesenmaschine (Giant Machine). His first novel, In Plüschgewittern (Storm of Plush), was published in 2002. This was followed by a collection of short stories, Diesseits des Van-Allen-Gürtels (This Side of the Van Allen Belt, 2007), which won the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize Audience Award.

Herrndorf's acclaimed novel Tschick (Why We Took the Car) further established him as a notable literary figure. In early 2010, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which influenced his later works and life.