Peter Schneider was born in Luebeck, Germany, in 1940. He is the author of more than 20 books, including novels, short stories and collections of essays, and his writings have been translated into more than 20 languages. Among those in English are The Wall Jumper (1983), Couplings (1996) and his most recent novel, Eduard's Homecoming (2000). As a journalist, he has contributed to Der Spiegel, The New York Times, Time and Le Monde among many others. He has also written several screenplays. He lives in Washington, D.C., where he is Roth Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Georgetown University.
Ian McEwan has written two collections of stories, First Love, Last Rites and In Between the Sheets, and ten novels, The Cement Garden, The Comfort of Strangers, The Child in Time, The Innocent, Black Dogs, The Daydreamer, Enduring Love, Amsterdam, Atonement and Saturday. He won the Booker Prize for Amsterdam in 1998.