Juan Gabriel Vásquez's previous books include the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award winner and bestseller The Sound of Things Falling and the Booker International finalist The Shape of the Ruins, as well as the award-winning Reputations, The Informers, The Secret History of Costaguana, and the story collection Lovers on All Saints' Day. His books have been published in forty languages worldwide. After sixteen years in Europe, he now lives in Bogotá.

Anne McLean is a Spanish-language translator who has twice won both the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the Premio Valle Inclán. She received the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award with Juan Gabriel Vásquez for his novel The Sound of Things Falling. She lives in Toronto.