Daniel Silva

Daniel Silva was born in Michigan in 1960 and raised Catholic; he converted to Judaism, the religion of his wife, the journalist Jamie Gangel, whom he met when both were correspondents in the Middle East. He covered the region for United Press International from Cairo, then produced Crossfire and Capital Gang for CNN, and left journalism in 1997 after his first novel, The Unlikely Spy (1996), reached the New York Times best-seller list. He is best known for the Gabriel Allon series, whose hero is an Israeli art restorer and intelligence officer; the series has been a New York Times best-seller since its first instalment, and every one of his novels since has reached the list.