Jonathan Franzen was born in 1959 and graduated from Swarthmore College. He has lived in Boston, Spain, New York, Colorado Springs and Philadelphia. His other novels are `The Twenty-Seventh City', `Strong Motion', `The Corrections' and `Freedom'. He is also the author of two collections of non-fiction, `How To Be Alone' and `Farther Away' and `The Discomfort Zone', a memoir. His fiction and non-fiction appear frequently in the `New Yorker' and `Harper's', and he was named one of the best American novelists under forty by `Granta' and the `New Yorker'. He lives in New York City.