José Eduardo Agualusa is one of the leading voices in the Portuguese language today. In 2019, Agualusa received the Angolan National Prize for Culture and Arts. He won the International Dublin Literary Award in 2017 for A General Theory of Oblivion. Also available in English are Creole, The Book of Chameleons, The Society of Reluctant Dreamers; My Father's Wives; Rainy Season; and A Practical Guide to Levitation. The Living and the Rest won the 2021 Portuguese PEN Prize.

Daniel Hahn is a writer, editor, and translator. He is the author of several works of non-fiction, including The Tower Menagerie. His translations (from Portuguese, Spanish, and French) include fiction from Africa, Europe and Latin America, and he has translated works by Machado de Assis, José Luís Peixoto, María Dueñas, José Saramago, Eduardo Halfon, Corsino Fortes, and Roger Mello.