Ödön von Horváth (1901–1939) is best known for his important plays, including Tales of the Vienna Woods, and for his novel, The Eternal Philistine. Born in Austria, he fled the Nazis to Paris, where he died when a tree limb struck by lightning hit him as he walked down the Champs-Elysee.

Liesl Schillinger is a literary critic, translator, and regular contributor to the New York Times Book Review. Her essays and reviews have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Washington Post, New York, Vogue, and elsewhere. Her most recent translation from the German is the novel Every Day, Every Hour, by Nataša Dragnić.