Michael Gruber was born and raised in New York City. He has a PhD in octopus behaviour, and has served as a US Army medic, a chef, a roadie, a Washington D.C. policy analyst and speechwriter. Since 1990, however, he has been a full-time writer and is the author of the international bestseller The Book of Air and Shadows. He now lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife, three children and an extremely large dog.