Ricardo Piglia lives in Argentina and is the author of nine Spanish-language books, two of which have been previously translated into English: Artificial Respiration, also published by Duke University Press, and Assumed Name. The Absent City has been performed as an opera in Argentina and Piglia’s books have been translated into Portuguese, French, Italian, and German. His fiction has won the Casa de las Américas Prize, the Boriz Vian Prize, and the Premio Planeta.

Sergio Waisman is Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at San Diego State University. His previous translations include Piglia’s Nombre falso (Assumed Name), which received the Meritorious Achievement Award in the 1995 Eugene M. Kayden National Translation Contest. In addition, Waisman was awarded a National Endowment of the Arts Translation Fellowship to support his translation of The Absent City.