Enrique Vila-Matas was born in 1948 in Barcelona. Among his many works are Bartleby y compañía (Bartleby & Co.), which was selected as the best book of the year by French booksellers and awarded the Ciudad de Barcelona Award and the Fernando Aguirre-Libralire Award; El mal de Montano (Montano's Malady), which received the Critics Award both in Spain and Chile, as well as the Prix Médicis in France and the Ennio Flaiano International Award; and Doctor Pasavento, which won the Fundación Lara Award and the Real Academia Española Award. He is also the recipient of the Premio Rómulo Gallegos 2000 and Premio Herralde 2002. His works have been translated into twenty-seven languages.