Paul Murray was born in Dublin in 1975. A former bookseller, he was educated at Trinity College Dublin and took a master's degree in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. His first novel, An evening of long goodbyes, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize, and nominated for The Kerry Irish Fiction Award. Paul's second novel is Skippy Dies, which was longlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. Despite being Irish, Paul was named one of Britain's 20 Best Novelists Under 40 by the Daily Telegraph.