Álvaro Enrigue was born in Mexico City in 1969. He has been a Literature and a Creative Writing professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana and the University of Maryland respectively. Since 1990 he has been devoted to literary criticism, and has published his articles in several Mexican and Spanish media. He has also been actively involved in various editorial activities: not only he has been a literary editor at institutions as reputable as the Fondo de Cultura Económica and the National Council for Culture and Arts, but he has also edited and contributed to the prestigious Letras Libres magazine. His novel La muerte de un instalador (The Death of a Plumber) was awarded the renowned Joaquín Mortiz Novel Prize in 1996. In Anagrama he has published Hipotermia (Hypothermia) and Vidas perpendiculares (Perpendicular Lives). In 2011 Enrigue was selected by the New York Public Library as writer in residence for the years 2011 and 2012, together with Jonathan Safran Foer y James Fenton, after the publication in Mexico and Spain of Decency.