Paula Hawkins

Author:
Paula Hawkins

Date of birth: 26-Aug-1972
Place of birth: Harare, Zimbabwe

About the author:
Paula Hawkins is a British author best known for her international bestseller The Girl on the Train (2015), a gripping psychological thriller that became a global phenomenon. Her work is known for its dark, twist-filled narratives and complex portrayals of women grappling with trauma, memory, and truth.

Born in Zimbabwe in 1972, Hawkins moved to the United Kingdom as a teenager. She studied philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE) at Oxford University, and later worked as a journalist, writing for publications like The Times and producing financial advice books.

Before breaking through as a novelist, Hawkins published several romantic comedies under a pseudonym, but it was The Girl on the Train—her first novel under her own name—that made her an international star. The book tells the story of Rachel, a troubled woman who becomes entangled in a missing persons case after witnessing something from her commuter train window. It topped bestseller lists worldwide, sold over 20 million copies, and was adapted into a 2016 film starring Emily Blunt.

Following her breakout success, Hawkins published Into the Water (2017), a suspenseful mystery involving a string of deaths in a small English town, and A Slow Fire Burning (2021), which explores violence, grief, and revenge through the intersecting lives of several troubled characters.

Hawkins’ novels are often praised for their psychological depth, unreliable narrators, and explorations of domestic and emotional instability, particularly through the lens of women’s experiences.

She continues to write and live in London, where she remains a prominent voice in modern thriller fiction, with her work translated into more than 40 languages.