Álvaro Pombo was born in Santander in 1939 and curren-tly lives in Madrid. He has a B.A. from the University of Madrid, and a B.A. in Philosophy from Birkbeck College (London). He has been awarded the Herralde Novel Prize (1983) for El héroe de las Mansardas de Mansard, the Critics' Prize (1991) for El metro de platino iridiado, and both, the Ciudad de Barcelona Prize and the National Literature Prize (1997) for Donde las mujeres, for which he was also shortlisted in the Aristeion Prize. With La cuadratura del círculo he was awarded the Fastenrath Prize (2001) by the Royal Academy of Language. El cielo raso was awarded The Lara Fundation Prize (2002), granted by eleven major publishers to the best published novel of the year. Also, in 2002 he was appointed to the Royal Academy of Spanish Language. For Contra natura has been awarded the Ciudad de Barcelona and the Salambó Prizes.