Upamanyu Chatterjee was born in 1959. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1983. His published works include short stories and the novels English, August: An Indian Story (1988), The Last Burden (1993), The Mammaries of the Welfare State (2000), which won the Sahitya Akademi Award for writing in English, and Weight Loss (2006). In 2008, he was awarded the Order of Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government for his contribution to literature.