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| photo: Tim Coburn | |
Jill Santopolo started writing books when she was three, but wasn't published until her 20s, when she began writing the Alec Flint, Sparkle Spa, and Follow Your Heart books for children and teens. A decade later, her first novel for adults, The Light We Lost, was translated into 35 languages and was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick. Since then, she's written More Than Words; Everything After; and her fourth novel for adults, Stars in an Italian Sky (Putnam, February 28, 2023), which weaves a love story in post-World War II Italy with one happening generations later.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
A novel of family secrets, shocking betrayals, passionate romance and Italian wine, with two intertwined love stories that cross time, distance and generations.
On your nightstand now:
I just finished Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin and have been shouting about it from the rooftops (the character development in particular wowed me). Next on my pile are Loyalty by Lisa Scottoline, The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell, Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn, and Spare by Prince Harry (that last one is an audiobook, though, so not physically on my nightstand the way the other ones are).
Favorite book when you were a child:
My absolute favorite picture book as a child was Andrew Henry's Meadow by Doris Burn. I loved the idea that kids could live on their own in a created world of their choosing, but still come home to families who loved them.
Your top five authors:
This is always the hardest question because I admire so many authors. In recent years, I've been especially impressed by Taylor Jenkins Reid's world-building, Annabel Monaghan's romance, Carley Fortune's emotion, and Ann Mah and Adriana Trigiani's complex weaving of stories across time periods.
Book you've faked reading:
[Hangs head in shame] In college, I never finished To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. I keep telling myself I'll go back to it one day, but that day hasn't come yet.
Book you're an evangelist for:
I have been an evangelist for years for Steve Sheinkin's Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon. It's a book about the incredible situations surrounding the creation of the atom bomb and is one of the best examples of narrative nonfiction I've ever read.
Book you've bought for the cover:
I didn't buy this book solely for the cover, but was really taken by the photo on the cover of From Scratch by Tembi Locke. The happiness and intimacy in the photo made me want to find out more about Tembi and Saro's story.
Book you hid from your parents:
I never hid any books from my parents--they were pretty great about letting me read what I wanted to read--but I probably should have hidden Queen of the Summer Stars by Philippa Gregory. It was a (sexy) retelling of the King Arthur legend from Queen Guinevere's perspective that somehow came into my possession in middle school. If you held the book by the front cover, it would open up to the sexiest passages because I'd read them so many times.
Book that changed your life:
Primary Target by Marilyn Wallace. Marilyn is my mom's cousin, and it was the first book I'd read by someone I knew. It made me realize that real people, regular people, could write books, and that maybe that meant I could write them one day, too.
Favorite line from a book:
One quote I think about all the time is from John Green's The Fault in Our Stars: "I fell in love like you would fall asleep: slowly and then all at once." It strikes me as such the perfect way to describe both falling asleep and falling in love.
Five books you'll never part with:
The first four are books from my childhood that I've saved for years and can't imagine ever giving away. The first is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, which was a gift for my 10th or 11th birthday, and which I've probably read 12 or 13 times since then. The next three are my copies of Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh, Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson, and Lydia, Queen of Palestine by Uri Orlev, all of which I've read at least five or six times, maybe more. And last, I don't think I'll ever part with my signed copy of Turning Pages, Sonia Sotomayor's picture book biography.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
I wish I could read Meg Wolitzer's The Interestings again for the first time. I got so caught up in the characters and their world that I felt like I'd been transported. For days after I finished it, I wanted to go onto social media to check on the characters and see how they were doing (of course, they were fictional, so sadly, no social media accounts).