THOMAS WHARTON's first novel, Icefields (1995), won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (Canada and the Caribbean), and was chosen as a CBC Canada Reads title. His second novel, Salamander (2001), was shortlisted for the Governor-General's Literary Award and the Rogers' Writers' Fiction Prize. A collection of short fiction, The Logogryph, was shortlisted for the 2006 IMPAC-Dublin Prize. The Fathomless Fire is the second book in a trilogy, following The Shadow of Malabron. He lives in Edmonton with his wife and three children, and is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Alberta.