David Malouf was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1934. His mother was an English Jew, and his father was a Christian from Lebanon. His parents raised him and his sister Jill in Australia. In 1955, he graduated from the University of Queensland. He writes both poetry and prose, which includes novels and short stories. He is a prolific writer, and some of his best-known works include The Great World and Remembering Babylon, and, more recently, Ransom. He is the winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize, the Prix Fémina Étranger, and he was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2011. He has lived in Australia, England, and Tuscany.