Leïla Marouane was born in Algeria in 1960 and has lived and worked in Paris since 1990. In addition to The Sexual Life of an Islamist in Paris, she is the author of four novels and one collection of short stories. In 2004, she was awarded the Liberatur Prize at the Frankfurt Book Fair, and in 2006 the prestigious Prix Jean-Claude Izzo for her novel La jeune fille et la mère.