The author is a teacher by profession. She studied English language and literature, and Asia Studies at the University of Amsterdam as well as Indology at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. Her previous works include children's books, novels, a collection of poetry and a language textbook published by Routledge. In her works of fiction, she is inspired by Sufi thinking and by the Persian poet, Sufi mystic and philosopher Omar Khayyam.