Nicolas Barreau was born in Paris, the son of a French father and a German mother. He studied romance languages and literature at the Sorbonne and worked in a bookshop on the Rive Gauche in Paris but is far from an inexperienced bookworm. With the success of his previous novels, The Ingredients of Love, The Woman of My Life and You'll Find Me at the End of the World, he has gained a devoted international audience.