With The Nightingale, I had been kicking the idea around for years. I was frightened to write it because on the surface it seems so different for me.

I absolute adore epic journeys that require a protagonist to fight for every victory in the hopes of finding triumph.

Calling it lunacy makes it easier to explain away the things we don't understand.

Historical tends to be my bailiwick.

Honestly, I really didn't want to take on World War II France, but when I came across the story of a nineteen-year-old Belgian woman who created an escape route out of Nazi-Occupied France, I was hooked.

Trying to justify a world we don't hold all the answers to is what bedevils the best of us. Sometimes it's better just to accept that things are as we see them.

The woman who led [downed airmen] was named Andrée De Jongh and her story - one of heroism and peril and astounding courage - became the inspiration for my novel.