Juan Gabriel Vásquez was born in Bogotá in 1973. He is the author of six previous novels, including The Informers and Reputations, and two collections of stories, The All Saints' Day Lovers and Songs for the Flames. He is the winner of many prizes including in 2014 the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Gregor von Rezzori Prize and the Alfaguara Prize for The Sound of Things Falling. In 2019 The Shape of the Ruins was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize and in 2021 he received the biennial Mario Vargas Llosa Novel Prize for Retrospective. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages. He lives in Madrid.