Eduardo Halfon was born in Guatemala City, moved to the United States at the age of ten, went to school in South Florida, studied Industrial Engineering at North Carolina State University, and then returned to Guatemala to teach literature for eight years at Universidad Francisco Marroquin. Named one of the best young Latin American writers by the Hay Festival of Bogota, he is also the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the prestigious Jose Maria de Pereda Prize for the Short Novel. He has published eleven previous books of fiction in Spanish. "The Polish Boxer," his first book to appear in English, was a "New York Times" Editors' Choice selection and finalist for the International Latino Book Award. Halfon currently lives in Nebraska and frequently travels to Guatemala. In consultation with the author, "Monastery" was translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman and Daniel Hahn.