Ahmed Taibaoui is a professor at the Faculty of Economics, Business, and Management Sciences at the University of Bouira in Algeria. He was awarded the Tayeb Salih International Prize for Written Creativity (2014) for his novel Mawt na'im (Death of a Sleeper), as well as the President of the Republic Award for Young Innovators (2011) for his novel al-Maqam al-'ali (The High Eminence). Winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Prize for Literature, The Disappearance of Mr. Nobody is Taibaoui's fourth novel and his English language debut. He lives in Algiers.

Jonathan Wright is a translator and former Reuters journalist. His previous translations from the Arabic include Khaled Al Khamissi's Taxi, Youssef Ziedan's Azazeel (Winner of the IPAF, 2009), Saud Alsanousi's The Bamboo Stalk (Winner of the IPAF, 2013), Hammour Ziada's The Longing of the Dervish (Winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Prize), Ahmed Saadawi's Frankenstein in Baghdad (shortlisted for the Man Booker International), Mazen Maarouf 's Jokes for the Gunmen (shortlisted for the Man Booker International), and Hassan Blasim's God 99, The Madman of Freedom Square and The Iraqi Christ (winner of the 2014 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize). He lives in London.