My team at Gallery Books/S&S is an incredible one; I don’t know how I got so lucky.
I’ve been so grateful to get to know Jen Long, Aimée Bell, Eliza Hanson, Sally Marvin, and Chelsea McGuckin even better over the past year. I’m also grateful to Jonathan Karp, Chrissy Festa, Lesley Collins, Tracy Nelson, Sarah Lieberman, Wendy Sheanin, Paula Amendolara, Heather Musika, Lisa Litwack, Hydia Scott-Riley, Lexi Dumas, Gaby Audet, Anabel Jimenez, Teresa Brumm, Michelle Leo, Tom Spain, Gary Urda, Nancy Tonik, Faren Bachelis, Tyrinne Lewis, Michelle Podberezniak (I miss you!), Hannah Moushabeck, Susan Kovar, Colleen Nuccio, the Book Club Favorites team, and the rest of the fabulous team at S&S, especially the incredible sales force, who have been so supportive. Special thanks to Molly Mitchell at Leo PR, Alyssa Maltese at Root Literary, Christine Hinrichs at Authors|Unbound, Kathie Bennett at Magic Time Literary, and the incredible producer Anna Gerb, who continues to fight for The Book of Lost Names. A special thank-you to Madeleine Maby, who always does such a beautiful job of narrating my books, and to Christina Sivrich, a dear friend who took on the audio narration of my novella, How to Save a Life, last year. And, of course, too, I adore my team at S&S Canada, which includes Natasha Tsakiris, Rebecca Snoddon, Felicia Quon, Adria Iwasutiak, and Shara Alexa. I also have to mention the extraordinary Nita Pronovost, vice president and editorial director at Simon & Schuster Canada, who perhaps has the best not-so-secret identity of anyone I’ve ever met.
You may know that, in 2020, I cofounded Friends & Fiction, a Facebook group and weekly web show with four other bestselling authors. It is still going strong, and I’m tremendously grateful to our flourishing community of more than one hundred thousand readers, and especially to my F&F besties, New York Times bestselling authors Kristy Woodson Harvey, Patti Callahan Henry, and Mary Kay Andrews; managing director Meg Walker of Tandem Literary; our F&F Writer’s Block podcast host Ron Block of the Cuyahoga County Public Library; and our selfproclaimed “AV Nerd”
(and on-air producer/legit rock star) Shaun Hettinger. Thanks, too, to Rachel Jensen and Grace Walker, who work behind the scenes, and to my friends Brenda Gardner and Lisa Harrison, who run the Friends & Fiction Official Book Club, along with JoDena Pyscher. Thanks to the many F&F members who go the extra mile to support authors and readers, especially the Friends & Fiction Official Book Club Ambassadors: Annissa Armstrong, Irene Weener, Susan Seligman, Rhonda Perrett, Molly Neville, Nicole Fincher, Debby Stone, Bubba Wilson, Jill Mallia, Francene Katzen, Sharon Person, Dallas Strawn, Linda Burrell, Michelle Marcus, and Dawne McCurry (as well as Barbara Wojcik, Maria Lew, Sarah Grady, and Marlene Waters).
I’m also grateful to the many fellow authors who have taken the time to join us as guests. Kristy, Patti, Mary Kay, and I host a live web show every Wednesday night (you can watch it in our Facebook group or on our YouTube channel), and we’ve had the chance to chat with some truly extraordinary writers, many of whom are very open with us about the challenges they face in both their writing and personal lives. I’ve been moved to tears more than once, and I’ve also found myself laughing so hard with other guests that I can’t catch my breath. Let’s just say it’s often the most emotion-packed hour of the week for us! If you’re not part of Friends & Fiction yet, please do join us. You can find out more at FriendsandFiction.com. We are also now doing in-person “Friends & Fiction: LIVE” events; I hope you’ll come see the four of us at one of our fun tour stops on the road!
To Kristy, Patti, Mary Kay, and Meg: Thanks for always having my back, and for giving me a safe place to vent, brainstorm, and share while letting me know that above all, I’ll always be loved. I love you, ladies, and I’m in awe of your talent and your goodness.
Special thanks to the many librarians and booksellers all over the world who go out of their way every day to make sure the right books find their way into the hands of the right readers. Thanks especially to Lauren Zimmerman (Writer’s Block Bookstore), Laura Taylor (Oxford Exchange), Cathy Graham and Serena Wyckoff (Copperfish Books), Rebecca Binkowski (MacIntosh Books + Paper), Zandria Senft (Bethany Beach Books), Susan Kehoe (Browseabout Books), Peter Albertelli and Maribeth Pelly (BookTowne), Olivia Meletes-Morris and Dallas Strawn (Litchfield Books), Polly Buxton (Buxton Books), Linda Kass (Gramercy Books), June Wilcox (M. Judson Booksellers), Stephanie Crowe (Page & Palette), Susan McBeth (Adventures by the Book), Tim Ehrenberg (Nantucket Bookworks), Jessica Osborne, Melissa Taylor, and Annie Childress (E. Shaver, Bookseller), Jamie Southern (Bookmarks), Easty Lambert-Brown (Ernest & Hadley Booksellers), Meredith Robinson (Little Professor Bookshop), Gary Parkes and Karen Schwettman (FoxTale Book Shoppe), Alsace Walentine and Candice Anderson (Tombolo Books), Terra Dunham (Book + Bottle), the wonderful booksellers at Steimatzky in Israel, the lovely folks at my local Barnes & Noble on Sand Lake Road in Orlando, and all the other booksellers around the country and world who have been so enormously supportive and wonderful.
I can’t wait to get back out on the road to tour this book and reunite with old bookseller friends and meet new ones. If you have a bookstore near where you live, lucky you; you’re just a short journey away from a little slice of heaven on earth. It’s no coincidence that in The Paris Daughter, one of the main characters owns a bookstore; it’s hard to imagine a more magical place to spend one’s days.
I mentioned my foreign rights agent, Heather Baror-Shapiro of Baror International, earlier, but what I didn’t add was that she (along with the wonderful Farley Chase, who sold my foreign rights earlier in my career) has made it possible for my books to be published in more than thirty languages. It gives me a little shiver of delight and gratitude each time I receive an email from a reader on another continent; it’s astounding to think about the incredible ability of words to reach around the globe and to connect us across cultures. Thanks especially to Hilit Hamou-Meir at The Armchair Publishing House in Israel (who has not only been an astoundingly wonderful publishing partner, but also sent me a beautiful basket from her village in Galilee this year), and to Rosa Schierenberg at the Welbeck Publishing Group in the UK. And a huge thank-you to the publishers and readers in countries around the world who are willing to take a chance on me and my books. Words can’t adequately express how grateful I am.
To my mom, Carol; my siblings, Karen and Dave; my dad, Rick; and to the rest of my family, including Janine, Barry, Johanna, James, William, Emma, Donna, Steve, Anne, Fred, Janet, Courtney, and all the cousins. I’m also fortunate enough to have the most fun in-laws in the world; the Trouba family rocks, and our family reunions are epic. Thanks especially to Wanda and Mark, Grandma and Grandpa Trouba, and all the Trouba aunts, uncles, and cousins, along with Jarryd, Brittany, and Chloe; Bob and JoAnn Lietz, and the Rivers family.
To the many authors whom I respect enormously and who have made me feel supported over the years, including Wendy Toliver, Allison van Diepen, Linda Gerber, Emily Wing Smith, Alyson No?l, Jay Asher, Kristina McMorris, Nguy?n Phan Qu? Mai, Sadeqa Johnson, Kelly Rimmer, Sally Hepworth, Lisa Scottoline, Marie Benedict, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Alison Hammer, Stephen Kellogg, and more. And to my longtime friends Kristen, Marcie, Amber, Megan, Melixa, Lisa, Amy, Courtney, Walt, Scott, Jon, Christine, and Chubby: I love you all, and I’m sorry I’m often so lousy at keeping in touch.
They say it takes a village to raise a child; I’m tremendously lucky to have so many wonderful members of my family’s village, including my son’s kindergarten teacher Robbi, first-grade teacher Merari, and our neighbors, including Mark, Weez, Rob, Lisa, and Shari.
To my husband, Jason, and my son, Noah: I love the two of you in ways I could only have imagined before you were in my life. Thanks for teaching me every day about the endless depths of my heart, and for not only tolerating but supporting my book tour travel, my Wednesday-night absences, and my occasional “I wrote too many words today and now I can’t string sentences together” brain fogs. You two are truly the best.
Finally, to you, the reader: Thank you for picking up The Paris Daughter. Your willingness to let me take you on a fictional ride—in this book and in my others—means more to me than I could ever express. I couldn’t do what I do without you, and I never lose sight, even for a second, of how grateful I am for your support. Thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.