Sandra Smith was born and raised in New York City. As an undergraduate, she spent one year studying at the Sorbonne and fell in love with Paris. Immediately after finishing her BA, she was accepted to do a Master's Degree at New York University, in conjunction with the Sorbonne, and so lived in Paris for another year. After completing her MA, she moved to Cambridge, where she began supervising in 20th Century French Literature, Modern French Drama and Translation at the University. Soon afterwards, she was accepted to study for a PhD at Clare College, researching the Surrealist Theatre in France between the two World Wars. Sandra Smith taught French Literature and Language at Robinson College, University of Cambridge for many years and has been a guest lecturer and professor at Columbia University, Harvard and Sarah Lawrence College.

• Winner of the Pen Book of the Month Club Translation Prize (USA) 2006
• Winner of the French-American Florence Gould Foundation Translation Prize (USA) 2007
• The Quill Award, USA, shortlisted for Book of the Year 2006, General Fiction category. (The only book in translation shortlisted.)
• Jewish Quarterly Wingate Literary Prize for Fiction 2006. Shortlisted.
• Jewish Quarterly Wingate Literary Prize for Fiction 2006. Shortlisted.
• British Book Awards: Border's Book of the Year 2006. Shortlisted.
• The Oxford Weidenfeld Prize for French Translation. Shortlisted.
• Independent Newspaper Foreign Fiction Prize: only open to living authors, so ineligible, but awarded a 'Special Commendation' by the panel 19 January 2007.