Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1936, and still lives there today. He has an academic background in philosophy and psychology, and is a full professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. His first novel, The Silence of the Rain, was honoured in 1997 with the Nestle and Jabuti prizes - the two greatest literature prizes given in Brazil. December Heat is the second novel in the Espinosa series.
