Sometimes a story grabs hold of you and won't let go.

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

To be honest, I wrote so many drafts of this book [ The Nightingale ] and changed the characters so many times; the real surprise is that I finished the book at all.

I simply couldn't walk away from [ The Nightingale].

Logic only tells us what's there; it can't really address what isn't. Even the most devoted empiricist must admit that we have no hope of understanding the universe. Some things are unknowable.

In the end, the best part of the whole book [The Nightingale ] to me was the research, reading about the courageous, ordinary French women who put their lives on the line to save others. It was really inspirational.

I read a ton of fiction - historical, contemporary, literary, commercial, I love it all.