Ann Mah's Jacqueline in Paris

LUCY BURDETTE: You may or may not remember that I'm a huge fan of Ann Mah's books. I've read them more than once--Mastering the Art of French Eating, Kitchen Chinese, and my favorite, The Lost Vintage. You can imagine how excited I am that her newest, Jacqueline in Paris, is out today! She could not be here to celebrate with us, but her friend Lisa Brackmann is visiting to introduce the new book. Welcome Lisa!

LISA BRACKMANN: Dear Reds and Readers, thank you so much for this opportunity to introduce you to my friend Ann Mah’s new novel, Jacqueline in Paris, the story of Jacqueline Bouvier’s junior year abroad, before the world knew her as Jackie Kennedy. 

Jacqueline Bouvier arrived in France in September 1949, to a country still recovered from the devastation of World War 2, a time of deprivation and ration tickets and coming to grips with dangerous post-war politics. The year that followed Jackie would later say she loved most of any year of her life—and Paris itself would become one of her greatest influences. What she learned about Parisian politics and her remarkable fluency in French language and culture would serve her well as First Lady, in more ways than one. 

The novel’s genesis was a 2019 travel piece that Ann wrote for the New York Times (that’s a gift link so you can read it), retracing the First Lady’s footsteps in the City of Light, of her time spent in places like the Latin Quarter and Montparnasse. After the piece was published, Ann’s agent asked her to write a pitch for a novel based on this premise. She did, and the book sold almost immediately. 

While selling on a pitch and selling that quickly is not an everyday occurrence for your average working author, it’s not surprising to me that a publisher would want this book from Ann Mah, because Jackie Kennedy in post-war Paris? Who doesn’t want to read that? And I can’t think of a better person to write it than Ann. If you are unfamiliar with Ann’s work—well, I’m here to rectify that, because you will want to get to know it. 

Ann Mah has published five books, both fiction and non-fiction. She’s a travel and food writer whose work has appeared in everything from the Washington Post to Bon Appétit. Several of her books deal specifically with France: her novel, The Lost Vintage (a historical with a mystery at its heart, highly recommended!) and not one but two works about French cuisine, Mastering the Art of French Eating (a memoir about food, life and love), and Instantly French! (how to make classic French cuisine in your Instant Pot). And she lives in Paris and knows the city intimately: the perfect guide to Jacqueline’s time in the City of Light. 

Jackie Kennedy’s life was one filled with superlatives: impossibly dramatic, glamorous, tragic, history-making. But the Jacqueline Bouvier in Ann’s novel is a young woman on a journey of discovery that I think many of us can relate to. She was raised to be demure, to please others, to hide her wit and intellect. Paris allowed her a way to be. Away from her problematic parents and in an unfamiliar landscape, surrounded by people who did not know who she was supposed to be, she could discover who she really was, who she wanted to become. She could explore love on her own terms and experience pleasure, intimacy and heartbreak. Jacqueline learned about the complexities of global politics, challenged herself intellectually and even edited a novel for the first time, and she made life-long friends. Ann Mah shows us how Bouvier’s year in Paris was foundational to the American icon that she would become—and best of all provides a believable and sympathetic portrait of the person behind that mask of celebrity. 

REDS AND READERS: Did you ever find yourself navigating an unfamiliar environment at a pivotal time in your life? How did it change you? How did it help you change? 

ANN MAH is an American food and travel writer and the bestselling author of the novels Jacqueline in Paris, The Lost Vintage and other books. A frequent contributor to the New York Times Travel section, she lives in Paris and Washington, DC.

Lisa Brackmann is the NYT best-selling author of the Ellie McEnroe trilogy (Rock Paper Tiger, Hour of the Rat, Dragon Day), and suspense novels Getaway, Go-Between and Black Swan Rising.

KIRKUS, starred review: "A delightful and surprisingly insightful novel follows the junior year abroad of Jacqueline Bouvier, a few years before she became Jackie Kennedy… Mah, who clearly loves Paris and all the details of French living, affectionately and precisely captures life in the post–World War II city, with many deprivations but a spirit of hope. Her Jacqueline—bright, observant, and a little naïve—is an engaging and believable character, and it's easy to imagine how her experiences during this year shaped her future life…Staying within the consciousness of Jacqueline as she is at this point, Mah smoothly walks the line between biography and fiction. Fans of the former first lady and Paris should be beguiled.”

BOOKLIST: “Mah’s exemplary mix of literary and journalistic skills pays off in this extensively researched novel about the woman who became America’s most iconic and enigmatic first lady."

“In Jacqueline in Paris, Ann Mah brilliantly imagines what life was like in 1949 for a college student named Jacqueline Bouvier as she embarked on her junior year abroad. The alluring descriptions of postwar Paris (the food, the scenery) will make you want to hop on a plane, and the compelling storyline, set amid the rise of the Communist movement in France, is made even more thrilling by the fact that we know where this particular woman is headed.” ~Real Simple 

Buy link for Jacqueline in Paris