Nicholas Shrady was born and raised in Connecticut.  He has a degree in philosophy from Georgetown University.  He is the author of Sacred Roads: Adventures from the Pilgrimage Trail; Tilt: A Skewed Tale of the Tower of Pisa; and The Last Day: Wrath, Ruin, and Reason in the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755. His articles, reviews, and feature stories have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times Book Review, Forbes, Architectural Digest, National Geographic Traveler, and El Pais. He is a professor of literature in Barcelona, where he has lived since 1986.