Colum McCann, originally from Dublin, Ireland, is the author of four novels and two collections of stories. His most recent novel, Zoli, was published in 2006. He has won numerous international literary awards for his work, including the inaugural Princess Grace Memorial Award for Literature. His movie, Everything in this Country Must, was nominated for a short-film Oscar in 2005. Zoli, Dancer and This Side of Brightness were international bestsellers and his fiction has been published in twenty-five languages. He lives in New York.