Lila Azam Zanganeh was born in Paris to Iranian parents. After studying literature and philosophy at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, she moved to the United States to teach literature, cinema and Romance languages at Harvard University. She has published a range of literary essays and interviews for, among others, The New York Times, The Paris Review, Le Monde, and La Repubblica. Her first book, The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness, a combination of fiction and essay on Vladimir Nabokov, has been published in twelve languages. Her new novel, A Tale for Lovers & Madmen, is forthcoming. She is fluent in seven languages and is the recipient of the Roger Shattuck Award for Criticism.