Marco Malvaldi was born and lives in Pisa, where he obtained a PhD in Chemistry from the "Normale" University. His previous books include the Bar Lume series. He is the winner of both the Isola d'Elba Award and the Castiglioncello Prize for his crime novels. Award-winning translator Howard Curtis has worked on more than sixty books from French, Italian and Spanish. Among his recent translations for Europa are works by Jean-Claude Izzo and Santiago Gamboa.