Pulitzer prize winning author Jane Smiley never thought she’d write a “talking animal book,” but she never imagined a pandemic taking over the year 2020. She needed an escape. So, she decided to work on an idea that came to her back in 2009…mostly because it made her smile. The story “Perestroika in Paris” is about a race horse who escapes from her stable and ends up living near the Eiffel Tower. She meets several friends including a dog, a raven, two mallards and a couple of rats. By the way, all of these animals talk to each other in the book. We talk with Smiley about how she made this idea plausible, the real life horse and dog who influenced the book’s characters and how her love of horses started while growing up in St. Louis.

Signed copies of the book are available from The Novel Neighbor: https://thenovelneighbor.indielite.org/book/9780525520351.
Curbside pickup and shipping available.