The Itinerary Hidden on the Cover

People tell me the cover feels like a travel diary, and that is exactly what I wanted. Every little window on it is a place Pessa actually goes, painted the way a memory looks rather than the way a photograph does.

The green panel is Giverny — Monet's water-lily bridge, because Paris in the book is less about the city and more about a kind of old, patient romance. The two stone towers are Ravello, perched above the Amalfi Coast, where the view is so wide it starts to feel like a question. The sea stacks are the Faraglioni off Capri, which I think are the most honest postcard in all of Italy.

And then the small things: a ring, a cuff, a horseshoe, an evil eye, a bottle of champagne. Luck and love and a little protection. Pessa could use all three.