Born in 1959, and a lawyer specialised in civil law, Ildefonso Falcones works in Barcelona where he lives with his wife and four children.
After acquiring in depth knowledge of the 14th Century Catalan world, Falcones de Sierra began to write his novel. for four consecutive years the author devoted to his book one hour every morning before going to work
The novel was published in Spain in March 2006 and was immediately an extraordinary success, resulting in an unprecedented publishing phenomenon; after a first run of 85.000 copies, in April of that same year The Cathedral of the Sea rushed to the top of the Spanish bestseller lists.
It has currently sold over a million copies in Spain and in Italy Longanesi is publishing the ninth edition with 200.000 copies sold; publication rights have been bought in most foreign countries