David Homel was born and raised in Chicago in 1952 of East European stock. He left at the end of the tumultuous 1960s and lived in Europe and Toronto before moving to Montreal around 1980. He was educated in three countries and worked at a variety of industrial jobs before beginning to write fiction in the mid-1980s. He has been a journalist, editor, literary translator, and teacher. Due to his education, he has followed the American tradition of socially engaged, historical novels. He is the father of two sons, Gabriel and Jacob.

Other books by David Homel:
The Teardown: A novel
A House Without Spirits