Jean-Claude Izzo was born in Marseilles, France, in 1945. Best known for the Marseilles trilogy (Total ChaosChourmoSolea), Izzo is also the author of The Lost SailorsA Sun for the DyingGarlic, Mint, & Sweet Basil, and one collection of short stories, Living Tires. He died in 2000 at the age of fifty-five.