FRANÇOIS BÉGAUDEAU is the author of two novels: Jouer juste (2003) and Dans la diagonale (2005). In 2005, he published a fictional biography of the Rolling Stones titled Rolling Stones: Un démocrate Mick Jagger 1960?1969. A filmcritic for the Cahiers du cinéma and the French version of Playboy, he played in the punk band Zabriskie Point before becoming a teacher in France's public school system.

Winner of the Prix France Culture/Télérama prize, The Class explores timely issues of race, class, identity, colonial history, immigration, and education, "suspend[ing] judgment and liberat[ing] the raw words of kids in a deconsecrated classroom" (Le Monde). The novel's eponymous film version, directed by Laurent Cantet, starring author Bégaudeau as himself, won the Palme d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.