Matthew Turner was born in Greytown, New Zealand in 1961. After graduating from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, he spent a year studying Japanese language and culture at Nagoya University as a Japanese Government (Monbusho) Scholar. He was later awarded a second Monbusho Scholarship to conduct postgraduate research at Keio University. He has lived, worked, and traveled widely in Japan.

In 2007, inspired by the landscape prints of the ukiyo-e artist Ando Hiroshige, he walked from Kyoto to Tokyo along the ancient Nakasendo trail, a distance of more than 330 miles. He occasionally writes about his travels on foot and other miscellaneous subjects at www.thewalkingfool.blogspot.com.

Matthew Turner lives with his wife in Christchurch, where he works as a writer and translator. SWEDEN is his first novel.