I always listen to music (delivered via iPod) when I write, both as insulation and, primarily, inspiration. What inspired me for this book was a lush, idiosyncratic palette of sound: Faun Fables’ melancholy menace, some Dylan and Elvis Costello, a lot of Rufus Wainwright– like “Baby,” and “Do I Disappoint You,” and “Coeur de Parisienne — Reprise d’Arletty” — and, later, on a tip from my very musical friend (and literary accompanist) Chris Schelling, Shearwater, whose “Red Sea Black Sea,” “White Waves,” “Well, Benjamin,” and especially “La Dame Et La Licorne” I must have played a million times.

The music is so deeply interwoven, now, in my experience of this novel, that every time I hear those songs, or the others on my “Recently Played” playlist, a part of the book comes back to me instantly: Oh, that’s when Istvan did this, or That was in Prague or That’s when the war started. What a beautiful shortcut!