R Raj Rao was born in Bombay. He studied in India and UK, and in 1996 attended the International Writing Program, Iowa. He is the author of Slide Show (poems), One Day I Locked My Flat in Soul City (short stories), The Wisest Fool on Earth and Other Plays and Nissim Ezekiel: The Authorized Biography. He has also edited Ten Indian Writers in Interview and co-edited Image of India in the Indian Novel in English (1960–1980). This is his first novel. A professor of English at the University of Pune, Rao is also one of India’s leading gay-rights activists.