Nam Le was born in Vietnam and raised in Australia. He has received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the NSW Premier's Literary Award for Book of the Year, the UTS Glenda Adams Award, the Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist Award, the Pushcart Prize, the Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award, a U.S. National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" Fiction Selection, as well as other awards and shortlistings.