Patrick Deville is a novelist and French cultural attache. He travels widely and has lived in the Middle East, Africa, south-east Asia and Latin America. He is based in Saint-Nazaire, western France, where he is the literary director of a centre for writers and translators. He is the author of nine acclaimed novels, including the bestselling Plague and Cholera, which was shortlisted for every major literary award in France in 2012 and won the Prix Fnac, Prix Femina and Prix des Prix.