Austin is the critically-acclaimed author of three novels, The Night Interns (Granta Books), Ten Days (Granta Books), and This Living and Immortal Thing ( Granta Books,)which was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, Runner-Up for the McKitterick Prize and was highly commended for the BMA Medical Books Awards. He grew up in Ireland, studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin and is a practising medical oncologist. He lives in Ireland with his wife and two children.