Jeff Talarigo is the author of three novels and numerous short stories. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, he has received many honors, including the American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Award for his first novel “The Pearl Diver”, one of eleven novels on the 2009 Notable Books List by the American Library Association for his second novel “The Ginseng Hunter”, NPR’s 2008 “Under the Radar”, a 2005 Kiriyama Prize Notable Book, been featured on NPR’s “Weekend Edition” and awarded a fellowship at the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers in 2006-07. His work has been published in five languages. He lived in Japan for fifteen years and twice lived in the Gaza Strip, the setting for his third novel “In the Cemetery of the Orange Trees”.