Alessandro Robecchi is a former columnist for Il Manifesto and currently writes for Il Fatto Quotidiano and Tuttolibri of La Stampa. Robecchi is one of Italy's most beloved crime authors, with his ten novels in the Carlo Monterossi series having sold more than 600,000 copies.

Gregory Conti has translated numerous works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from Italian including works by Emilio Lussu, Rosetta Loy, Elisa Biagini, and Paolo Rumiz. He is the translator of Stefano Mancuso's two previous books, The Nation of Plants and The Incredible Journey of Plants, and recently translated The Child Is the Teacher by Cristina De Stefano. He is a regular contributor to the literary quarterly Raritan.