[4] Funder worked for the Australian Government as an international lawyer in human rights, constitutional law and treaty negotiation, before turning to writing full-time in the late 1990s.

There, they continued the dangerous and illegal work of smuggling documents out of Goering's office, and giving them to Winston Churchill (a backbencher at the time) to try to alert the world to Hitler's plans for war.

The book was called "superb" by The Spectator, "strong and impressively humane" by the Times Literary Supplement), "a beautiful ensemble novel of Graham Green’esque proportions" by Weekendavisen and "an essential novel" by Colum McCann.

Her feature Secret History which appeared in The Guardian and in Good Weekend about the files from the Nazi death camps held in obscurity by German authorities won the 2007 ASA Maunder Award for Journalism.

[17] She has toured as a public speaker, and is a former German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Australia Council for the Arts, NSW Writing and Rockefeller Foundation fellow.