Riveting True Story of A Female Spy!

 

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR'S CHOICE

Reviews: "A compelling story that pulsates with the energy of a thriller"—The Wall Street Journal

"Suspense, élan and a generous helping of glamour: Think George Smiley in a mink-trimmed coat."—The New York Times Book Review

The true story of socialite Marguerite Harrison, who spied for U.S. military intelligence in Russia and Germany in the fraught period between the world wars

Born a privileged child of America’s Gilded Age, Marguerite Harrison rebelled against her mother’s ambitions, married the man she loved, was widowed at thirty-seven, and set off on a life of adventure. Hired as a society reporter, when America entered World War I she applied to Military Intelligence to work as a spy.

She arrived in Berlin immediately after the Armistice and befriended the enemy, dining with aristocrats and dancing with socialists. Late into the night she wrote prescient reports on the growing power of the German right. Sent to Moscow, she sneaked into Russia to observe the results of the Bolshevik Revolution. Although she carried press credentials she was caught and imprisoned as an American spy. Terrified when told her only way out was to spy for the Cheka, she became a double agent, aiming to convince the Russian rulers she was working for them while striving to stay loyal to her country.

In Germany and Russia, Harrison saw the future—a second war with Germany, a cold war with the Soviets—but her reports were ignored by many back home. Over a decade, Harrison’s mysterious adventures took her to Europe, Baghdad, and the Far East, as a socialite, secret agent, and documentary filmmaker. Janet Wallach captures Harrison’s daring and glamour in this stranger-than-fiction history of a woman drawn to the impossible.

Janet Wallach is the author of The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age, as well as Seraglio and Chanel: Her Style and Her Life. She is also coauthor, with her husband John Wallach, of three previous books on the Middle East: The New Palestinians; Arafat: In the Eyes of the Beholder; and Still Small Voices: The Real Heroes of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. She lives in New York City.

What Do Twins Dream Of?

Born in poverty-stricken Albania, twin sisters Argita and Detina Zalli always dreamed of becoming doctors. But when the government collapsed, plunging the country into anarchy and civil war, the twins’ dream unraveled along with their homeland.
Their parents were determined to find a way to leave and save their daughters’ futures—not to mention their very lives. After several dangerous attempts, they finally escaped, only to be thrust into a new nightmare as refugees.

With grit and determination, they fought their way forward. When tragedy struck yet again, threatening what they held most dear, the girls had to come to terms with the high price they had all paid to survive.

In Good Morning, Hope, Argita and Detina share their harrowing story of courage and resilience. It was the strength of their family, particularly the sisters' unbreakable bond as twins, that nurtured and sustained them throughout their perilous ordeal.

"Readers will be fascinated. . . . A haunting reminder of how precious democracy is."—Kirkus Reviews

Argita Zalli and Detina Zalli Born in Albania, twin sisters Argita and Detina Zalli were eleven years old when the government collapsed and civil war broke out. Two years later, after several failed attempts to flee the violence and poverty, they escaped with their parents to England.

Overcoming the formidable challenges of being refugees, both young women achieved academic success and went on to become highly accomplished PhD research scientists and lecturers. Influenced by Barack Obama and eager to help others, they founded We Speak Science, a nonprofit organization that supports disadvantaged students throughout the world, particularly immigrants, whose circumstances hinder their ability to learn at school.

Subsequently, in collaboration with world-class oncologists and scientists, Argita and Detina cofounded Aferdita Ime, a nonprofit initiative that seeks to help cancer patients through psychosocial support and counseling.

How Much Should A Child Endure?

He has endured more than any child ever should, but now he must survive Block 66.

January, 1945. 14-year-old Moshe Kessler steps off the train at Buchenwald concentration camp. Having endured the horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau, lost touch with his entire family, and survived the death march in the freezing European winter, he has seen more than his share of tragedy.

Moshe knows only one thing about Buchenwald. Everyone knows it.

If you want to survive, you have to get to Block 66.

The Germans are cruel and determined – but they are not prepared for Buchenwald’s secret resistance, which rises up with one mission only: to protect the camp’s children from harm.

This is the incredible true story of Moshe Kessler and Block 66 – the children’s block that was at the forefront of one of the most shocking and inspiring stories of Holocaust survival.

Is this a true story?

It is A WW2 Jewish Holocaust Survival True Story (Heroic Children of World War II Book 1)

Dr. Limor Regev specializes in the Isaeli-Arab conflict and territorial retreats in Israel and has held various academic positions over the years. Among these positions, she has acted as the head of an academic unit at the College of Management, a specialist at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), and is currently a research fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations in the Hebrew University. Regev gives lectures and participates in conferences relevant to her fields across the globe.

Dr. Regev’s grandparents left Poland with Zionist youth movements in the 1930s, escaping the fate of their parents, brothers and sisters who were murdered in Treblinka. She has always been intrigued by World War II and the Holocaust, and this interest set her on the course to writing her first book – the life story of Moshe Kessler, who survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald camps to tell his incredible tale.

Moshe Kessler is the father of one of Limor’s closest friends. The hours of work and the joint journey the two embarked on while writing his

Did You Hear about This American Tragedy?

 

The Best Minds is Jonathan Rosen's brilliant and heartbreaking account of an American tragedy. It is a story about the bonds of family, friendship, and community; the promise of intellectual achievement; and the lure of utopian solutions. Tender, funny, and harrowing by turns, at times almost unbearably sad, The Best Minds is an extreme version of a story that is tragically familiar to all too many. In the hands of a writer of Jonathan Rosen's gifts and dedication, its significance will echo widely.

What did Jonathan Rosen investigate?

Acclaimed author Jonathan Rosen’s haunting investigation is about the forces that led his closest childhood friend, Michael Laudor, from the heights of brilliant promise to the forensic psychiatric hospital where he has lived since killing the woman he loved.

What is the story about?

It's a story about friendship, love, and the price of self-delusion.The Best Minds explores the ways in which we understand—and fail to understand—mental illness.

A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions.

Reviews:

The New York Times said, "Brave and nuanced…an act of tremendous compassion and a literary triumph.”

The Wall Street Journal said, "Immensely emotional and unforgettably haunting."

Jonathan Rosen is the author of The Talmud and the Internet and the novels Eve's Apple and Joy Comes in the Morning. His essays have appeared in The New York Times and The New Yorker. He is the editorial director of Nextbook.

True Story of America's Most Dangerous Spy

The incredible true story of Ana Montes, the most damaging female spy in US history, drawing upon never-before-seen material and to be published upon her release from prison, for readers of Agent Sonya and A Woman of No Importance.
Just days after the 9-11 attacks, a senior Pentagon analyst eased her red Toyota Echo into traffic and headed to work. She never saw the undercover cars tracking her every turn. As she settled into her cubicle on the 6th floor of the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington, FBI Agents and twitchy DIA officers were hiding in nearby offices. For this was the day that Ana Montes--the US Intelligence Community superstar who had just won a prestigious fellowship at the CIA--was to be arrested and publicly exposed as a secret agent for Cuba.

Like spies Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen before her, Ana Montes blindsided her colleagues with brazen acts of treason. For nearly 17 years, Montes succeeded in two high-stress jobs. By day, she was one of the government’s top Cuba experts, a buttoned-down GS-14 with shockingly easy access to classified documents. By night, she was on the clock for Fidel Castro, listening to coded messages over shortwave radio, passing US secrets to handlers in local restaurants, and slipping into Havana wearing a wig.

Montes didn’t just deceive her country. Her betrayal was intensely personal. Her mercurial father was a former US Army Colonel. Her brother and sister-in-law were FBI Special Agents. And her only sister, Lucy, also worked her entire career for the Bureau. The highlight of her distinguished 31 years as a Miami-based language specialist: Helping the FBI flush Cuban spies out of the United States. Little did Lucy or her family know that the greatest Cuban spy of all was sitting right next to them at Thanksgivings, baptisms, and weddings.

In Code Name Blue Wren, investigative journalist Jim Popkin weaves the tale of two sisters who chose two very different paths, plus the unsung heroes who had to fight to bring Ana to justice. With exclusive access to a “Secret” CIA behavioral profile of Ana, family memoirs, and Ana’s incriminating letters from prison, Popkin reveals the making of a traitor—a woman labelled “one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history” by America’s top counter-intelligence official.

After more than two decades in federal prison, Montes will be freed in January 2023. Code Name Blue Wren is a thrilling detective tale, an insider’s look at the clandestine world of espionage, and an intimate exploration of the dark side of betrayal.

Jim Popkin is an investigative journalist whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, WIRED, Newsweek, Slate, The Guardian, Washingtonian, and on National Public Radio. He started and ran the NBC News Investigative Unit, where he was a Senior Producer as well as an on-air correspondent. Popkin reported for NBC News for nearly 14 years, and his stories have appeared on NBC’s TODAY Show, the NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, and CNBC. Popkin has won four national Emmy Awards for outstanding journalism, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, the George Polk Award, and was a finalist for the National Magazine Award. The American Journalism Review profiled him as one of Washington’s “most enterprising journalists.” He received a BA from Northwestern University and a Master’s in Law from Yale Law School, and lives in Washington, DC.

George Washington~The Entrepreneurial Economy~Inspiring

Drawing on substantial new material, Cyrus A. Ansary gives a riveting account of how George Washington sought to put in place in America an economic system that was the antithesis of what had existed in the colonies under British rule. The entrepreneurial economy – which nurtures and rewards innovation and inventiveness – did not sprout into being in the United States by sheer happenstance. It was put in place by our first President. He painstakingly laid the foundation for it, but it did not take root without a struggle. He needed extraordinary tenacity to overcome fierce opposition to his program.President Washington’s economic initiatives are the least well understood facets of Washington’s busy and productive life. They enlarged the dreams and opportunities of Americans, led to a flourishing entrepreneurial climate, and are an inspiring tale for our time.

Cyrus A. Ansary is a lawyer, entrepreneur, philanthropist, educator and author. Mr. Ansary earned a BS in Economics from American University, a law degree from Columbia University, and a Certificate in French Civilization from the University of Paris. He also served in the U.S. Marines and now lives with his wife, Jan, in the Washington, DC area.

After becoming a member of the Maryland, Virginia, Washington, DC, and the U.S. Supreme Court bars, Mr. Ansary began his career practicing law in the Washington DC area. He was the founder and president of Investment Services International Co., Chairman of the Board of JP Morgan Value Opportunities Fund, Inc. and was lead director at Washington Mutual Investors Fund for 15 years, after which he became chairman of the board. He also served, among others, on the boards of First American Bank of Maryland, Krupp GmbH, and Deutsche Babcock and Wilcox. He managed the first sovereign wealth fund in the world to make transnational equity investments.

Mr. Ansary has been actively engaged in civic endeavors throughout his career. He served on the Board of Trustees of the American University for almost 28 years, including 9 years as Chairman of the Board, and is now Chairman Emeritus. He was a member of the board of trustees of the Krupp Foundation in Essen, Germany. He also was an adjunct professor of corporate finance at American University. Since 1990, the Cyrus A. Ansary Medal has been awarded annually to a civic or corporate leader selected by the American University Board of Trustees.

Mr. Ansary has served as a member of the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars Council, a trustee of the Washington Opera Society, and a trustee of the Wolf Trap Foundation. He was a member of the Life Guard Society of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, and is now an emeritus member. In 2012, Mr. Ansary and his wife established the Cyrus A. Ansary Prize for Courage and Character under the auspices of the Life Guard Society of Mount Vernon. In 2014, the first recipient of the prize was former President George H.W. Bush.

Facing Extraordinary Circumstances

Bestselling author Tessa Afshar delivers another adventurous novel filled with romance and imagination, reminding readers of what Publishers Weekly calls her “amazing talent for packing action and intrigue into the biblical setting for modern readers.

• ”Full-length historical romance novel set in biblical times
• Compelling, clean romance
• Can be read as a standalone or as a companion to The Hidden Prince
• Includes discussion questions for book groups

The Peasant King

Jemmah has always thought of herself as perfectly ordinary . . . until she faces extraordinary circumstances.

When her mother, the Persian king’s famous senior scribe, is kidnapped, Jemmah and her sister must sneak undetected into enemy territory to rescue her. But infiltrating their adversary’s lands proves easier than escaping them. Fleeing through dangerous mountain passes, their survival depends on the skills of a stranger they free from prison: a mysterious prince named Asher.

Asher is not who the world believes he is. Despite his royal blood, he has had to climb his way out of poverty to forge success from nothing. A manufacturer of some of the best weaponry in the East, Asher has only one goal: to destroy his father. But following his escape from prison, Asher is irresistibly drawn to Jemmah, unaware that she guards her own secret.

Jemmah must convince Asher to give up everything he has worked for, all for the sake of a higher purpose he’s not sure he believes in. The fate of the Persian empire―and possibly the Judean people―hang in the balance and in the persuasive power of one ordinary woman.

Interview on the 700 Club:

Released November 7, 2023

Tessa Afshar is an award-winning author of biblical and inspirational historical fiction. She holds a Master of Divinity from Yale University, where she served as cochair of the Evangelical Fellowship at the Divinity School. After working in women's ministry for nearly twenty years, Tessa became a full-time writer and speaker. Tessa and her husband live in New England, where they proudly tend their mediocre garden.

https://tessaafshar.com/

What Is The Impact Suicide Leaves In Its Wake?

Angela Hunt Talking About Her New Book "What A Wave Must Be"

What inspired this story Angela?

Focus on the Family wanted to do novels about contemporary social issues. Jerry Jenkins contacted writers and edited the three books, and I’m thrilled to be associated with Chris Fairy and Tamera Alexander in this endeavor.  

Describe the audience that you envisioned while writing this book. Who do you think will enjoy this book? 

I wrote the book as a parent and grandparent, and I think people in those roles will discover a lot to ponder and take away from the story.

What messages or themes do you focus on in this story?

One of the themes is hope, because people who take their lives have utterly lost hope. We have hope in Jesus, but many times our problems loom larger than our faith.

Who was your favorite character to write? 

The grandmother, naturally—I am a grandmother who loves her grandchildren, and my heart aches when they are unhappy. In a very real sense, I am Nana. 

How does faith play a role in this story? 

The adult characters, including the man who takes his life, are believers. Maddie, the teenager, is not. So the adults have to deal with their own grief as they try to model Christian hope and faith for their granddaughter. Not always easy to do. 

What do you hope readers take away from Maddie’s journey? 

I hope parents of teenagers will understand how large problems loom for teens. Life seems so immediate when you’re young—it can seem like it will take forever before you get a driver’s license—so they don’t always understand that momentary actions can have eternal consequences.

What do you hope to communicate about the issue of suicide and the impact left in its wake? 

I don’t want to give away the story’s plot points, but I can say this: People who commit suicide because they think they’re doing their loved ones a favor are absolutely wrong. Suicide causes far more grief and raises more questions than any alternative. 

Do you have any other writing projects in the pipeline? 

I am currently working on the last book of a series set in ancient Rome. I recently completed a series set in the intertestamental period; then I did four books set during the time of Jesus’ ministry; and now I’m moving on to the people whom Paul led to Christ. I’ve really enjoyed writing these series in chronological order. It’s almost like living through the Bible.

Angela Hunt has authored more than 165 works and sold nearly six million copies of her books worldwide. Her books have won awards such as the coveted Christy Award, several Angel Awards for Excellence in Media, and the Gold and Silver Medallions from Foreword’s Book of the Year Award. Angela holds a doctorate in biblical studies and a ThD. She and her husband live in Florida.

https://www.angelahuntbooks.com/

Before His Memory Fades Can He Right the Wrongs?

 

Chris Fabry

Saving Grayson An inspiring fiction story from the bestselling author of War Room

Grayson Hayes needs to solve the mystery of his life before his memory fades. Diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, he realizes he has a small window of time left to right a terrible injustice—he just can’t remember what it is. Convinced of the importance of his mission, he embarks on a journey to the small West Virginia town of his childhood, hoping he can put together the fractured pieces of his memory and set things right. But as his past comes into focus, he wonders if God forgives the sins he can’t remember. A thought-provoking story with challenging themes, this book deals with issues like • receiving grace rather than trying to earn it, • what it’s like to care for a loved one with memory loss, • how to live when you feel like you’re losing yourself, • what gives value to a human life, and • the eternal power of forgiveness and second chances. Saving Grayson is a wrenching yet hopeful story of a journey to right unknown wrongs and of holding on to what you know even when it feels like everything is slipping away.

Chris Fabry is an award-winning author and radio personality who hosts the daily program Chris Fabry Live on Moody Radio. A graduate of the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism at Marshall University and a native of West Virginia, Chris and his wife, Andrea, now live in Arizona and are the parents of nine children.

Chris's novels, which include Dogwood, June Bug, Almost Heaven, and The Promise of Jesse Woods, have won five Christy Awards, an ECPA Christian Book Award, and two Awards of Merit from Christianity Today. He was inducted into the Christy Award Hall of Fame in 2018. His most-recent novel, A Piece of the Moon, is a love story/mystery set in the hills of West Virginia. His books include movie novelizations, like the bestseller War Room; nonfiction; and novels for children and young adults. He coauthored the Left Behind: The Kids series with Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, as well as the Red Rock Mysteries and the Wormling series with Jerry B. Jenkins. Visit his website at chrisfabry.com.

What Are The Dangerous Possibilities of AI?

A Killer App explores the dangerous possibilities opened by Artificial

Intelligence and deepfakes.

Deepfakes Can Be Murder

The Chameleon, an Artificial Intelligence expert, can create a deepfake of almost anyone-living or dead. Even more frightening is the Chameleon's ability to seek out disturbed souls and laser-focus their rage. A talent she employs to compel her subjects to commit violence on her behalf.

Kylee Kane, a security consultant for Welch HOA Management, finds the Chameleon's first victim, Andy Fyke, crumpled at the bottom of a flight of stairs. Kylee suspects the fall's no accident and is tied to Andy's campaign to prohibit rentals in his Hilton Head Island community. Andy's obvious enemies have ironclad alibis.

Then another Lowcountry HOA retiree dies in a hit-and-run boat tragedy. Are the incidents linked? Kylee thinks so, and relentlessly pursues the Chameleon, who turns her full attention on permanently sidelining Kylee.

A journalism major, I got my first paid writing job with Plymouth Traveler Magazine the summer after my sophomore year at Northwestern University. My editors were a hoot, and I was hooked.

In the decades since then (my gray hair hints at the number), I’ve written hundreds of magazine features for business and trade magazines, freelanced for advertising agencies, written speeches for corporate executives, produced marketing brochures and newsletters, planned PR events, scripted videos, and written Help for tech products.

I enjoyed it all, but nothing compares to the joy of researching and writing mysteries and suspense novels. In 2022, I celebrated my tenth year as a traditionally published author!

When I’m not writing (or reading), I enjoy tennis, swimming, gardening and long walks with my husband. We now live on a lake in Upstate South Carolina. Though we’ve also called Fripp Island, SC, Durham, NC, Atlanta, GA, and Rochester, NY, home.

To learn more:  https://www.lindalovely.com/

Small Town Secrets~ The People Who Keep Them!

 

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.
As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.

Reviews:


AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“A murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel . . . Charming, smart, heart-blistering, and heart-healing.” —Danez Smith, The New York Times Book Review

“We all need—we all deserve—this vibrant, love-affirming novel that bounds over any difference that claims to separate us.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post

From James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah’s Book Club pick Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them

James McBride is the author of the award-winning New York Times bestseller, The Color of Water. A former reporter for The Washington Post and People magazine, McBride holds a Masters degree in journalism from Columbia University and a B.A. from Oberlin College.

https://www.jamesmcbride.com/

(Photo from Goodreads)

What Is The Story Behind The Peasant King?

 

In researching this period of history were there parts you enjoyed the most?

The rich historical data available from this period provided a lot of additional information where the Bible is silent. Before the Israelite captives could be set free from Babylon, God had to implement several other rescues. What became evident through my research was that transforming the small nation of Persia into a global empire mighty enough to defeat Babylon needed God’s intervention. These historical accounts were fun to read about. More importantly, they encouraged and strengthened my faith.

Could you tell us about the thread involving Old Testament Prophecy in this novel and why you were interested in this topic?

  

While Persia was still a relatively small country, Isaiah prophesied that Jerusalem and the Temple would one day be rebuilt with the help of a Persian king. This is a shocking prophecy on many levels. For one, the deliverer of God’s people would be a Gentile. He is the only Gentile to whom God refers as his anointed one (Isaiah 45:1-3). Also, at the time of this prophecy, Persia was a minor nation, itself under the rule of the Medes. There was no way it had the power to rescue anyone. It would be a little like in WWII, if instead of the US coming to the aid of the Allies, the Bahamas had come to the rescue. It just wouldn’t have had the same impact. At the time the prophecies were given, the Persians simply did not possess the power needed to defeat Babylon.

In a later prophecy, Jeremiah predicted that the kings of Media would be the ones to destroy Babylon. In other words, the Gentile king that Isaiah named would one day rule the Medes. He had to first defeat the powerful nation of Media before he could even set his sights on Babylon.

As I studied history, I realized how many miracles God had to work for this part of the prophecy to be fulfilled, in order for the Persian king named in Isaiah to become the ruler of Media. It gave me a deeper appreciation of God’s influence, power, and protection over nations as well as individuals throughout time.

This was the story I had to tell because I found it incredibly encouraging. It doesn’t matter how impossible the circumstances; God will find a way!

What are some key Scripture passages that inspired The Peasant King?

In addition to the prophetic verses I used from Isaiah 45:4-5, Isaiah 44:24, 28, and Jeremiah 51:11, one verse captured what is a central theme in this novel. When Israel was about to begin its conquest of the Promised Land, Moses told them that God would drive the nations out little by little, rather than all at once (Deuteronomy 7:22). Often, we find this to be the case in our own lives. God’s transformations and impartations come little by little. They are a process rather than instant cures. Jemmah, who struggles with a painful situation, is learning to navigate God’s little-by-little grace rather than the all-at-once her heart desires.

Jemmah, your protagonist, thinks of herself as unexceptional. Why do you think many of us feel we are too ordinary to be used by God in big ways?

On the one hand, we really are ordinary. We are the girl next door, the average student, the run-of-the-mill mother, the regular Joe. The mirror shows us an ordinary face with an ordinary mind and an ordinary body. It’s easy to stop your story there. To see that much and no more. And to conclude that God needs someone more extraordinary to accomplish anything important. The problem is that when we think that way, we utterly miss the spectacular reality that God has made us in his own image. More astounding still, through Christ, the Spirit of God dwells in us (Romans 8:11). This means that as followers of Jesus, no one is ordinary.

I think God’s view of who is extraordinary is radically different from ours. The Father looks for obedience, for love, for patience, for faith. These are the qualities that make us more like Jesus, and therefore, extraordinary.

What did you learn while writing The Peasant King?

My research reminded me that the will of God in this world is opposed. The plans of God will meet resistance. Every heavenly promise has an obstruction. But our Father is the God of the impossible. In studying secular history alongside biblical promise, I was astounded by the way God broke through every barrier to fulfill his plan. And he is still doing that today!

We are delighted Tessa Afshar shared some of the background of this story. The Peasant King releases November 7. Be sure and order your copy now.