Juan Gabriel Vásquez was born in Bogotá in 1973. He is the author of six novels, including The Sound of Things Falling (trans. Read More Anne McLean, 2014), which won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Gregor von Rezzori Prize and the Alfaguara Prize, and two collections of stories, The All Saints’ Day Lovers and Songs for the Flames. In 2019 The Shape of the Ruins was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize, and in September 2021 Vásquez was awarded the fourth biennial Mario Vargas Llosa Prize for Volver la vista atrás, which will be published by MacLehose Press in September 2022 (trans. Anne McLean). Vásquez is also the translator into Spanish of works by E. M. Forster, John Hersey, and Victor Hugo, among others. His own books have been translated into more than twenty languages. He lives in Bogotá.