Sara Gallardo was a celebrated and prize-winning Argentinian writer, born in Buenos Aires in 1931. Her first book was published in 1958 and by the time she died in 1988 she had published novels, short stories, children's books, and essays. Written after the death of her second husband, Land of Smoke is the first of her books to be translated into English. <p/>Jessica Sequeira is a writer and literary translator living in Chile and the UK. Her books include A Luminous History of the Palm, Golden Jackal / Chacal Dorado, A Furious Oyster, Rhombus and Oval, and Other Paradises: Poetic Approaches to Thinking in a Technological Age. She has translated many books by Latin American authors, and edits Firmament magazine (Sublunary Editions). Recently she finished a PhD in Latin American Studies at the University of Cambridge.
