Catherine Rey was born in Saintes, studied and taught French Literature in Bordeaux before leaving France for Australia in 1997.Her debut novel L'ami intime was published in 1994 by the iconic French publisher Le Temps Qu'il Fait. It received a laudatory review in Le Monde. Rey followed this with seven more works published in France, two of which have been translated into English and garnered high praise.One of these is The Spruiker's Tale, a novel short-listed for the prestigious Renaudot and Femina Prizes in France (Ce que racontait Jones) and translated by Andrew Reimer. Also published by Giramondo came the fictionalised autobiography Stepping Out (translated from Une femme en marche by Julie Rose), where the author anatomises her consuming struggle to find her writing voice through a difficult relationship with her mother.In 2018 Rey published with Gazebo Books The Lovers, her first English language novel. Miles Franklin Award winner Michelle de Kretser described The Lovers as 'impeccably crafted' and Catherine Ford in The Sydney Morning Herald/The Age as 'an impressive feat of complex and nuanced story-telling'.