Born in Port-au-Prince (Haiti) in 1940, Emile Ollivier is the author of two previous novels, Mere-Solitude (Prix Jacques Roumain 1985) and La discorde aux cent voix (Prix du Journal de Montreal 1987) and two collections of stories, Paysage de l'aveugle and Regarde, regarde les lions. He has lived in Montreal, Quebec for over twenty-five years where he taught at the University of Montreal, Professor Emeritus. He holds degrees in comparative literature from Oxford and Harvard.