Miguel Bonnefoy was born in France in 1986 to a Venezuelan mother and a Chilean father. His two previous novels, Octavio's Journey and Black Sugar, have sold more than thirty thousand copies each in France and have been translated into several languages. In 2013 Bonnefoy was awarded the Prix du Jeune Écrivain. Heritage has received widespread critical acclaim in France, including being short-listed for the Prix Femina, Grand Prix de l'Académie française, and the Goncourt Prize.

Emily Boyce is an editor and translator based in London. Her translations include works by Antoine Laurain, Pascal Garnier, and Laurent Gaudé, and two previous novels by Miguel Bonnefoy. She was short-listed for the 2016 French-American Foundation Translation Prize for her translation of Éric Faye's Nagasaki.