HUGH FITZGERALD RYAN comes from Skerries, in North County Dublin where he now lives. A writer, teacher, painter and swimmer, he has published five critically acclaimed novels: The Kybe (1983), Reprisal (1989), On Borrowed Ground (1993), Ancestral Voices (1995) and In The Shadow of The Ombú Tree (2005). Hugh is married to Margaret. They have eight children and 6 grandchildren.