Tomas Eloy Martinez was born in 1934 in Argentina. His first novel and first book of chronicles were published in Buenos Aires between 1968 and 1973. During the military dictatorship, he lived in exile in Venezuela where he wrote three other books, all of which were republished in Argentina in 1983, in the first months of democracy. Since then he has written The Peron Novel and The Master's Hand, followed by Santa Evita, which became an instant No.1 bestseller when it was published in Argentina. Currently he is the director of Latin American studies at Rutgers University, New Jersey.