Simon Mawer

author

Simon Mawer is the author of two books of non-fiction and eight novels. His first novel, *Chimera*, winner of the McKitterick Prize, was published in 1989, and is partly set in Italy, where he has lived since the 1970s. This was followed by the novels *The Bitter Cross* and *A Jealous God*. His third novel, *Mendel's Dwarf*, based on the life of Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics, and the modern day experiences of his great-great-great nephew, a molecular biologist, was shortlisted for the 1999 *Los Angeles Times* Book Prize. It was followed up by the literary thriller, *The Gospel of Judas*, and *The Fall*, which was named a 2003 *New York Times* Notable Book and won the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountaineering Literature. Simon Mawer's latest novels are *Swimming to Ithaca*, partly inspired by his childhood on Cyprus, and *The Glass Room*, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize, the Walter Scott Prize, and the Wingate Prize. *The Glass Room* has been called "a thing of extraordinary beauty and symmetry... a rare thing: popular historical fiction with integrity" by *The Guardian.* Mawer holds a degree in zoology from Oxford University.