A powerful and romantic historical novel based on the true story of the world famous astronomer Tycho Brahe. Fifteen year Jepp, born a dwarf but untroubled about his size in his loving home, is taken to the court of the Spanish Infanta. Here, amongst the glitter of court life, Jepp falls in love and discovers the sinister life style behind the glamour. To survive and to win the woman he loves, he must take control of his own destiny and defy the stars which predict a different future for him. November 2012 Book of the Month.
Being a court dwarf is no easy task. I know because I failed at it.
Fifteen year old Jepp's life is changed forever the day a mysterious aristocrat whisks him away from his life in the Dutch countryside to the court of the Spanish Infanta. However, Jepp's happiness soon turns to misery as he discovers that humiliation and cruelty lurk beneath the court's glittering facade.
Jepp must draw on all of his courage and charm to win the woman he loves, find his true identity and become the man he wishes to be. Jepp must defy the stars.
Why eleven? I was born in Kingston, New York, a town on the Hudson River, on 11/11/74 (7 + 4 = 11), eleven days early, at 12:26 pm (add it up...eleven).
The summer before I turned five, my parents moved to my grandmother's house in Bronxville, New York, a suburb 29 minutes by train to Grand Central Terminal. As an only child, I hung out a lot with my grandmother. She had run a Russian/ Ukrainian bar in the East Village that many years later became the Life Café, the bohemian gathering place immortalized in the musical Rent.
I was the second shortest kid every year of elementary school. I was also the sickest kid, logging almost two months of absences in the sixth grade. These experiences were formative: I still have a fear of being picked up and tossed around. And I still love to lie in bed, milking a sickness, and reading.
My parents split up when I was ten, though for the sake of this list they should have waited till I was eleven. Despite including Latin in all three of my books, I was actually a mediocre Latin student. An embarrassing translation error ended my Latin career in the ninth grade. If you have a Latin question for me, please make sure it involves declining the word "farmer" since I can't do much else.
I studied a lot of poetry at Yale. Upon graduation, however, I discovered that openings for poets were scarce and took a job teaching ninth and twelfth grade English at not just any Connecticut boarding school but my alma mater. I was only occasionally mistaken for a student.
In 1998, I moved to New York City to begin a career as a journalist. My first job was at Good Housekeeping, where I kept the messiest desk in the history of the magazine. I proudly continue to be extremely messy. I spent two years writing for Rolling Stone though not about music (so please don't send me your garage band demos) but about kids and their lives across the country.
I met my husband on a blind date in New York City. In 2002, we moved to Washington, D.C., where we still live today. For almost five years, my day job was editing political journalism at The New Republic magazine. That makes me two for two working at magazines that were the subject of movies (Almost Famous and Shattered Glass).
I am the mother of two small children and two large cats, Egg and Scotty.
