Samir El-Youssef

SAMIR EL-YOUSSEF was born in Lebanon and eventually moved to London, where he currently resides. He has worked as a critic and essayist for magazines and newspapers in both English and Arabic, including the Guardian, The New Statesman, Al-Hayat, and The Washington Post. He is also the author of a novel and two short story collections in Arabic. El-Youssef received the Swedish PEN Tuchotsky Award in 2005 for promoting peace and freedom of speech in the middle east. The Illusion of Return is his first novel in English.