Ismail Kadare, born in 1936 in the Albanian mountain town of Gjirokaster near the Greek border, is Albania's best-known poet and novelist. He has lived in France since 1990, following his decision to seek asylum. From 1986, under the Communist regime, Mr. Kadare's work was smuggled out of Albania by his French publisher, Éditions Fayard, and stored in safe keeping for later publication. Translations of his novels have since been published in more than forty countries. Mr. Kadare is the winner of the inaugural Man Booker International Prize 2005 and won the Neustadt International Prize for 2020. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature 2019.

David Bellos was educated at Oxford and teaches French and Comparative Literature at Princeton University, where he also directs the Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication. He has written biographies of Georges Perec and Jacques Tati, and an introduction to translation studies, Is That A Fish in Your Ear? He has translated numerous authors from French (Perec, Vargas, Kadare, Simenon, Antelme, Fournel) and offers a new understanding of the extraordinary life and work of Romain Gary in Romain Gary A Tall Story. His latest book is a study of Victor Hugo's masterpiece, Les Misérables.