Mayra Montero was born in Havana in 1952 has lived in Puerto Rico for over 50 years. She is the author of numerous acclaimed and award-winning works of fiction, including The Last Night I Spent With You (1991) and Deep Purple (2000), The Red of His Shadow (1993), In the Palm of Darkness (1995), The Messenger (1998), Captain of the Sleepers (2002), Dancing to Almendra (2006), and The Gentleman of St Petersburg (2014), which have made her one of the most distinguished authors writing in Spanish. Her work has been translated in the US, France, Germany and Italy. Her latest novel, published in 2024 by Tusquets, is La tarde que Bobby no bajó a jugar.