About the Author

QIU Xiaolong was born in Shanghai, where his novels are set, but has lived in St. Louis for over 30 years. His detective thrillers, featuring Chief Inspector CHEN Cao of the Shanghai police, are amongst the best-known contemporary novels set in China, translated into over 20 languages. Inspector Chen, like his creator, is a poet and translator of T. S. Eliot into Chinese. Qiu has also translated three collections of Chinese poetry, and published two volumes of his own poems. His latest novel is The Shadow of the Empire. Karen CHRISTENSEN is an American publishing entrepreneur, environmentalist, and author. She was editorial assistant to Valerie Eliot, T. S. Eliot's second wife, in London in the late 1980s, and has written about Valerie Eliot as well as other women connected with powerful and influential men. In 2021, the Shanghai Review of Books featured an interview of her with QIU Xiaolong in celebration of the centenary of The Waste Land. She owns and runs Berkshire Publishing Group.