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Eva Stachniak

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Posted by on Apr 27, 2022

The School of Mirrors on Storytime in Paris/ Paris Underground Radio.

Canadian Paperback

From January 24, 2022, The School of Mirrors ia available in paperback in Canada.

Paperback edition link.

From Hazlitt Magazine

‘Silence We Inherit and Carry With Us’: An Interview with Eva Stachniak 

BY CHRISTINE FISCHER GUY

The author of The School of Mirrors on sexual violence, the history of midwifery, and opening up archival silences. 

The New York Times recommends The School of Mirrors as “one of the books that promise to bring your summer alive.”

On the Power and Purpose of Historical fiction;

Conversation between Eva Stachniak and Christina Baker Kline “about history, facts, truth, interpretation, and how our writing about the past informs and comments upon the present”

CBK: Both of us write fiction set in the past that reflects, or illuminates, or comments upon, life in the present day. How did you come to write about the past, and what does your writing say about the world we live in today?

ES: I was born in Poland and the women who raised me never stopped talking about the big historical upheavals they lived through. As a child, I quickly calculated: to be a grandmother I have to live through two World Wars, to be a mother, through one World War and one Nazi occupation.

I never forgot that I was raised in what historian Timothy Snyder aptly called “the Bloodlands of Europe”: Hitler’s and Stalin’s killing fields. How could I? War ruins were around me. Everyone I knew talked about loss and displacement. Borders had shifted. Part of Poland became Soviet Russia, part of Germany became Poland. All this irrevocably shaped my parents’ lives and mine.

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MORE at LITERARY HUB

A reflection on how the memories of war linger in families:

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The School of Mirrors in the media:

Posted by on Jan 8, 2022

National Bestseller

The Globe and Mail Bestseller list for the week of March 5, 2022

Interviews:

Words with Writers Podcast

After a longer than expected winter break, hosts Chris Gorman and Brandi Tanner are finally back with a brand new episode featuring award-winning and bestselling author Eva Stachniak. Author of the newly released historical fiction novel The School of Mirrors, Eva discusses her new book, the craft of writing historical fiction, the connections between her work and ongoing events of today’s world, and so much more.

History Author Show Video Interview

In conversation with Dean Karayanis.

The interview is available as a video on YouTube, and for streaming audio at HistoryAuthor.comiTunes, our iHeartRadio channel, etc. You can also simply say, “Alexa, play the latest episode of the History Author Show,” and she’ll play it on the iHeart app.

Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb

Behind the book talk about inspiration, sources, and the 18th century women.

Kris Waldherr Art and Words in conversation with Eva Stachniak

Eva’s prose is simply stunning: lyrical, intimate, and insightful. I was privileged to read an advance copy of THE SCHOOL OF MIRRORS and found myself completely immersed in Eva’s sweeping recreation of 18th-century France in all its glories and terrors. By the time I turned the last page, I’d felt as though I’d journeyed through that tumultuous era firsthand.

Writer’s Digest. Eva Stachniak on Filling the Blanks

…Eva discusses where her research led and where her imagination took over in her new historical fiction novel, The School of Mirrors, what she hopes readers get out of the experience, and more!

BookTrib

From Russia’s Winter Palace to France’s Versailles–a conversation with Nancy Bilyeau

Bookbub

 Melissa Flandreau writes: about The School of Mirrors

This beautifully written story takes place in the 18th-century court of King Louis XV. At Deer Park, on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles, young girls arrive believing they’re being offered employment in the household of a count. Instead, they’re trained as courtesans for the king, and Veronique quickly becomes a favorite. But when she becomes pregnant, she’s quickly taken away to give birth, and then separated from her daughter, Marie-Louise. Full of vivid details, The School of Mirrors is a riveting read.

More on BookBub

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Inspiration for The School of Mirrors

Posted by on Oct 3, 2021

The School of Mirrors —already published in Germany as Die letzte Tochter von Versailles—is set in the corridors of Versailles at the time of Louis XV and among the midwives of Paris during the French Revolution.

The story was inspired by the following quote in the The Private Memoirs of Madame du Hausset, Lady’s maid to Madame de Pompadour, a lively account of court life at Versailles:

I asked Madame, if the young lady knew that the King was the father of her child? “I do not think she does,” replied she, “but, as he appeared fond of her, there is some reason to fear that those about her might be too ready to tell her; otherwise,” said she, shrugging her shoulders, “she, and all the others are told, that he is a Polish nobleman, a relation of the Queen, who has apartments in the palace.” This story was contrived on account of the cordon bleu, which the King has not always time to lay aside, because, to do that, he must change his coat, and in order to account for his having a lodging in the palace so near the King. 

The “young lady” in this passage refers to one of Louis XV young lower class mistresses, known as the Deer Park girls, kept in ignorance of their lover’s identity. This is all I had to begin ..

I will be sharing more posts about the writing of The School of Mirrors, soon, but for now, here is the picture of the board which kept me company for the last three years. You may recognize the portrait of Queen Marie Leszczyńska, Louis XV’s wife and some of the interiors of the Versailles Palace where many of the novel’s scenes took place.

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9 Works of Historical Fiction Featuring Real People

Posted by on Feb 24, 2019

What a pleasure to see Bronia Nijinska and The Chosen Maiden in the company of nine historical novels chosen by Wiki.ezvid.com for this wonderful recommendation:

Novels that use real historical figures as characters have all the best qualities of historical fiction and biographies. You can learn some actual facts about the lives of fascinating people, while also getting caught up in an imaginative story written in an entertaining way.

Wiki.ezvid.com


Here she is, still a young dancer, dancing in Petrushka,
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