TOM MCCARTHY was born in 1969 and lives in London. He is known in the art world for the reports, manifestos, and media interventions he has made as general secretary of the International Necronautical Society, a semifictitious avant-garde network. His books include C and Satin Island--both of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Transmission and the Individual Remix: How Literature Works, and Men in Space. In 2013 McCarthy was awarded an inaugural Windham-Campbell Literature Prize from Yale University.