Javier Vásconez was born in Quito, Ecuador. He studied first at the University of Navarra and later in Paris. He began his narrative journey with A Distant City and in 1983 he won the Special Mention from the Mexican magazine Plural with Angelote, My Love. He has also published The Man with the Sideways Glance, The Traveler from Prague, and A Stranger at the Harbour (anthology of short stories). The Shadow of the Gambler was a finalist for the Rómulo Gallegos Prize in 1999. He has published the book of short stories Guests of Honour, the spy novel The Return of the Flies and Capelo Garden. Season of Rains was published in Spain in 2009, and a year later a commemorative edition of The Traveler of Prague was released with a prologue by Juan Villoro. In 2010 his novel The Skin of Fear (Rómulo Gallegos Prize finalist) appeared in Colombia, Spain and Ecuador, and in 2012 he published his short novel The Other Death of the Doctor. His stories have been translated into various languages including German and French.