Muriel Barbery is the author of the international bestseller The Elegance of the Hedgehog (2007) and Gourmet Rhapsody (2009). Her newest novel, The Life of Elves, will be published by Europa Editions in February 2016.

Alison Anderson, a native Californian, works as a literary translator in the Swiss Alps. Her many translations include Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Ingrid Betancourt’s memoir, and the work of JMG De Clezio. She has also written two previous novels and is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literary Translation Fellowship, as well as fellowships at the prestigious MacDowell Colony and the Hawthornden Retreat for Writers.