Ilija Trojanow (Sofia, 1965) fled Bulgaria with his family in 1971. After living in Germany for a year, his parents settled in Kenya, where the author spent his early youth until he went to study at the University of Munich. He lived for several years in Mumbai and Cape Town, and in 2007 settled in Vienna, where he currently resides. His most notable novels include The Collector of Worlds (2008) and The Thaw (2011). In 1995, he received the prestigious German Ingeborg Bachmann Prize.