Saikat Chakraborty was born in Calcutta in 1974 and grew up in the same city. He received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Houston and has been a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas Medical School. He is an assistant professor of chemical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). The Amnesiac is his first novel. jamie@tobyeady.demon.co.uk