TIBOR FISCHER (Stockport, 1959) was born to Hungarian parents, both professional basketball players who had left Hungary in 1956. He grew up in south London before going to Cambridge University to study Latin and French. He has worked as a journalist and was selected as one of the 20 “Best of Young British Novelists 2” by Granta magazine in 1993. His first novel, Under the Frog (1992), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction, tells the story of a Hungarian basketball player, Gyuri Fischer, dreaming of escape to the West while on a tour in the 1950s. His other fiction includes The Thought Gang (1994), The Collector (1997), and Don’t Read This Book If You’re Stupid (2000). His novel, Voyage to the End of the Room (2003) has been called an updating of Robinson Crusoe and Treasure Island for the 21st century. His latest novel is Good to Be God (2008) and he published another collection of stories entitled Crushed Mexican Spiders in 2011.