W. G. (Winfred Georg) Maximilian Sebald (18 May , Wertach im Allgäu – 14 December , Norfolk, England) was a German writer and academic. At the time of his early death at the age of 57, he was being cited by many literary critics as one of the greatest living authors, and had been tipped as a possible future winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature - in a interview the secretary.