Arthur Phillips was born in Minneapolis and educated at Harvard. He has been a child actor, a jazz musician, a speechwriter, a dismally failed entrepreneur, and a five-time Jeopardy! champion.His first novel, Prague, was named a New York Times Notable Book, and receivedThe Los Angeles Times/Art Seidenbaum Award for best first novel. His second novel, The Egyptologist, was an international bestseller, and was on more than a dozen "Best of 2004" lists. Angelica, his third novel, made The Washington Post best fiction of 2007 and led that paper to call him "One of the best writers in America." The Song Is You was a New York Times Notable Book, on the Post's best of 2009 list, and inspired Kirkus to write, "Phillips still looks like the best American novelist to have emerged in the present decade."His work has been published in twenty-seven languages, and is the source of three films currently in development.His fifth book, The Tragedy of Arthur, was named one of the best books of 2011 by The New York TimesThe New YorkerThe Wall Street JournalSalonThe Chicago TribuneKirkus ReviewsThe Minneapolis Star-TribuneThe San Francisco ChronicleThe Philadelphia InquirerThe American Library AssociationLibrary JournalPaste MagazinePopMattersThe Toronto Globe & Mail (Canada)The Toronto Star (Canada)The New Statesman (U.K.)Critical MobHudson BooksellersAmazonBarnes and Noble He lives in New York with his wife and two sons.