Jim Crace is the author of Continent, The Gift of Stones, Arcadia, Signals of Distress, Quarantine (1998 Whitbread Novel of the Year; shortlisted for the Booker Prize), Being Dead (2001 National Book Critics Circle Award), The Devil's Larder, Six and The Pesthouse. His novels have been translated into 26 languages. In 1999 Jim Crace was elected to the Royal Society of Literature.