Navtej Sarna was born in Jalandhar, India. After studying Commerce and Law at Delhi University, he joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1980. He is presently the Spokesperson for the Foreign Office in Delhi and has earlier served as a diplomat in Moscow, Warsaw, Thimphu, Geneva, Tehran and Washington D.C. He has contributed short stories to the BBC World Service, London Magazine and to the anthologies Signals and Signals 2. His book reviews appear in the Times Literary Supplement, Biblio and other journals. In 1991, he published Folk Tales of Poland. This is his first novel.