He obtained an MA in comparative literature and a PhD in Islamic studies from UCLA.
He has taught at the University of Bern and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich.
His first translated work was Wild Thorns (German title: Der Feigenkaktus) by Sahar Khalifeh in 1983.
Since then he has translated books by many of the most important Arabic writers, from Naguib Mahfouz to Alaa al-Aswany.
Fähndrich has received numerous awards for his work, including several from the city of Bern,[citation needed] one from the Arab League in 2004,[citation needed] from Egypt's Supreme Council of Culture in 2006,[citation needed] and the Saudi King Abdullah International Award for Translation in 2009, the world's richest translation prize.