Leïla Slimani is the first Moroccan woman to win France's most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, which she won for Lullaby. A journalist and frequent commentator on women's and human rights, she is French president Emmanuel Macron's personal representative for the promotion of the French language and culture. Born in Rabat, Morocco, in 1981, she lives in Lisbon.

Author photograph: Francesca Mantovani 2022 © Éditions Gallimard.

Sam Taylor is an award-winning literary translator and novelist. He has translated more than sixty books from French including Laurent Binet's HHhH, Leïla Slimani's Lullaby, and Marcel Proust's The Seventy-Five Folios.