Marc Elsberg is a former creative director in advertising. His debut thriller, the high-concept disaster thriller BLACKOUT, became a bestseller and one of the most successful thrillers of its kind in Germany. He has also given a TEDx talk on the subject of the horrors of an electrical grid failure. BLACKOUT and his follow-up, CODE ZERO were selected as Scientific Book of the Year in Germany. BLACKOUT was named Thriller of the Month by the Times. His latest bestselling thriller, GREED, contains cutting-edge research on the economy. He lives in Vienna, Austria.