Jose Luis Peixoto is Portugal's most acclaimed, prize-winning young novelist, three-times winner of the Jovens Criadores Prize and in 2001 winner of the Jose Saramago Prize with Blank Gaze Blank Gaze was published in twelve languages by leading literary publishers The Piano Cemetery is translated by Daniel Hahn, 2007 winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for his translation of Rainy Season by Jose Eduardo Agualusa.

Praise for 'Blank Gaze' 'Peixoto is one of the most surprising revelations in recent Portuguese literature. I have no doubts that he is the safe promise of a great writer' - Jose Saramago 'An impressive and unusual feat ... Intensely beautiful writing packed with startling and memorable images ... his bold, incantatory prose is consistently beautiful - apparently simple but also incredibly rich and resonant' - Independent 'Brilliantly rendered ... Peixoto's ironic sensibility shines through beautifully' - James Robertson

Jose Luis Peixoto was born in 1974 in Galveias, Portalegre, in Portugal's Alentejo region. A journalist, novelist, poet, dramatist, literary critic and teacher of languages and contemporary literature, he is also a heavy metal fan and produced a book and record called The Antidote with the Gothic band Moonspell. His work is published and acclaimed in many languages and has won major prizes in Portugal and Brazil, including the Jose Saramago Prize in 2001 for Blank Gaze. Daniel Hahn is a translator of fiction and non-fiction, mainly from Portuguese. His translation of The Book of Chameleons by Angolan novelist Jose Eduardo Agualusa won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007.