LUC LERUTH has published short stories and several novels, including La Machine Magique (Gallimard, 2004), a story set in Jaipur during the time of the construction of the Jantar Mantar. He is a mathematician (trained in astronomy) and has a PhD in economics. He studied at the Indian Statistical Institute (New Delhi) in the 1980s and is currently teaching at the University of Essex. Leruth has also published extensively in scientific journals. He has travelled all over the world and lived in India, Fiji, the US, Gabon, Ghana, and the Philippines. He is active in the private sector, in the area of corporate governance and transparency, as well as in various groups of economists involved in public policy. He married Sumita (Rekha), an Indian professor of TESOL who passed away in 2013. Rumble in a Village is written in her memory.