This story owes its life to two American friends who introduced me to their tiny town in France and who, long before that, invited my family into the magic world they created with their music and art. What I observed over the years is that it is possible—not easy, but possible—to invent the life you dream of living. Their generosity of spirit inspired this story, even though Katherine and Michael are not them, and Reigny-sur-Canne is not a real town, hovering in the right place geographically, but only in the mists of my imagination, as do all the people who live only there.
My deep thanks to Ceil Cleveland, David Corbett, Glenda Burgess Grunzweig, Terry Shames, and Steve Shea, for their insights and early reads; Kimberley Cameron, for her steady encouragement; at St. Martin’s, Alicia Clancy, for telling me she loved the characters, and Bethany Reis, who made it a better book; Anne Trager of Le French Book for connecting me with a real gendarme; and the people I met in the Yonne region of Burgundy, who were courteous and knowledgeable about everything from cheese to chocolate to the deeply moving history of a place that suffered so much during the Nazi occupation and that fought so valiantly against it.