José Eduardo Agualusa was born in Huambo, Angola, in 1960. For a number of years he lived in Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro, but has now returned to Angola. He is the author of The Book Of Chameleons, the winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for 2007. His previous work includes Creole, which was awarded the Portuguese Grand Prize for Literature and is a bestseller in Angola, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.