Javier Cercas was born in 1962. He is a novelist, short-story writer and columnist, whose books include Soldiers of Salamis (which sold more than a million copies worldwide, won six literary awards in Spain and was filmed by David Trueba), The Tenant and The Motive, The Speed of Light and The Anatomy of a Moment. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. He lives in Barcelona.
ANNE MCLEAN has translated works by Hector Abad, Julio Cortázar and Enrique Vila-Matas.
She hastwice won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, for Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas and for TheArmies by Evelio Rosero, and in 2012 was awardedthe Spanish Cross of the Order of Civil Merit.