Charif Majdalani was born in Lebanon in 1960 and is one of the most important figures in Lebanese literature today. After living in France for thirteen years, he returned to Lebanon in 1993 and now teaches French literature at the Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut. His novel
Moving the Palace won the 2008 François Mauriac Prize from the Académie Française as well as the Prix Tropiques. His previous book
Beirut 2020: Diary of the Collapse was published by Other Press in 2021.
Ruth Diver holds a PhD in French and comparative literature from the University of Paris 8 and the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She won two 2018 French Voices Awards for her translations of
Marx and the Doll by Maryam Madjidi, and
Titus Did Not Love Berenice by Nathalie Azoulai. She also won Asymptote's 2016 Close Approximations fiction prize for her translation of extracts of
Maraudes by Sophie Pujas.