(Spain) He studied History at Barcelona University and worked for two years as a radio presenter for the social affairs programme Catalunya sense barreres (Radio Estel, ONCE). As a writer, he was shortlisted for the 8th Fernando Lara Prize in 2008 for El abismo de los sueños (not published) and won the 2006 Tiflos Novel Prize in 2006 for El peso de los muertos. In 2011 he published The Sadness of the Samurai. Translated into a dozen languages and a bestseller in France, it has been wellreceived by critics and has won several prizes, including the 2012 Prix dupolar Européen for the best European crime novel awarded by the prestigious French publication Le Point at the Lyons Crime Fiction Festival, an award that has been won on other occasions by authors such as Philip Kerr and Arnaldur Indridason. In 2013 he won the Quercy Noir and Tormo Negro awards forThe Sadness of the Samurai.