THE WAR BEGINS IN PARIS IS OUT NOW!

| Ted Wheeler

Tuesday last week was publication day for THE WAR BEGINS IN PARIS!!!

This is the first novel I wrote from start to finish as a published author, and the first since I became a bookseller. Every day when I got to work on these pages I tried to keep my audience in mind, treating the writing as a sort of performance and an invitation to engage. (As a book written mostly during the pandemic, maybe this was a matter of emotional survival.) The result is, I believe, my best work yet: an imaginative war novel that will challenge, delight, and resonate with many of the scores of readers I have met over the last six years, and hopefully many more.

All my work is topical in some way, but I think this is my most timely novel yet, as a novel about American fascism, but also about strained friendship and lost family. The idea for this story was born out of my experience as a political reporter during the last two presidential elections. The threats against journalists, the denigration of honest reporters, and the cynicism of propagandists—all this was on my mind as I worked on these pages.

Thanks so much to my family for putting up with my shenanigans. This is the fourth book we’ve launched together in seven years. That’s a lot of author relations work on their part, which isn’t easy. All my love. The same to my publishing family, especially my agent Stephanie Delman and editor Vivian Lee. Three novels together! And hopefully many more yet to come.

I hope you enjoy The War Begins in Paris at least a quarter as much as I did while writing it. Let me know what you think; share reviews online; come see me on my book tour; invite me to come visit your book club; request that your local library or bookstore put the book in stock; or suggest the book to a friend who might enjoy reading it. Most of all, I hope you have the time and inclination to read The War Begins in Paris. Whatever support you can give, I appreciate it, truly, knowing what it takes.

Best wishes. Yours in solidarity. Keep up the good fight.

Riverside Chats

| Ted Wheeler

Thanks so much to host Tom Knoblauch and producer Courtney Bierman for having me back on Riverside Chats to talk about The War Begins in Paris, American fascism, celebrity journalism, disingenuous political actors, and all sorts of critically-important stuff. This is such a great program; one we’re lucky to have in Omaha.

The conversation aired earlier today on Omaha’s local NPR affiliate, but you can catch it online, of course, at the link below. Or read a transcript here!

Luke Jennings Endorsement

| Ted Wheeler

Here’s a fun one. For fans of Killing Eve, an endorsement of my new novel from Luke Jennings, author of the Codename Villanelle series that inspired the TV series!

“The War Begins in Paris tracks, in scrupulous and forensic detail, a relationship toxified by the lies of Nazism.”

—Luke Jennings, author of Codename Villanelle

Publishers Weekly Review!

| Ted Wheeler

Last week the new Publishers Weekly hit shelves and featured a glowing review for The War Begins in Paris!

You can read the entire review in the September 25, 2023 issue or on their website. In the meantime, here are some highlights:

Wheeler delivers an evocative and well-crafted story of two American journalists on a potentially fatal collision course in WWII Europe.

He effectively makes uses of the Damoclean sword he’s devised to maintain suspense, and the book’s ornate prose captures the period’s unsettling combination of horror and progress…

This is one to savor. 

Kassandra Montag Endorsement

| Ted Wheeler

So happy to share an endorsement from my dear friend and collaborator, Kassandra Montag!

I publish nothing without showing it to Kassandra first and The War Begins in Paris is no different. Such a keen mind and generous spirit. She’s the best.

“A riveting novel with dynamic characters, The War Begins in Paris illuminates how intoxicating and destructive obsession can be. Wheeler ratchets up the drama with his nuanced, glowing prose, and portrays two complex women who believe in their ideals, no matter the peril. I couldn’t put it down.” —Kassandra Montag, author of After the Flood

Caitlin Horrock’s Endorsement

| Ted Wheeler

I feel so lucky to have the great Caitlin Horrocks endorse The War Begins in Paris!

Caitlin’s The Vexations (about Erik Satie’s life in Belle Epoque France) is one of the best novels of the last five years. She was all booked to come to Omaha in 2020 to tell us about the novel at Omaha Lit Fest, but, alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

“This powerful, immersive novel is simultaneously lush and chilling. Theodore Wheeler transports us to a place and time where friendships make it harder, not easier, to chart a moral path forward, and masterfully explores how love and loyalty can, for better and for worse, change what we’re willing to do, and who we understand ourselves to be.”

—Caitlin Horrocks, author of The Vexations

Timothy Schaffert Blurb

| Ted Wheeler

I’m so honored to share this fantastic endorsement for The War Begins in Paris from one of my favorite novelists (and the godfather of Nebraska authors) Timothy Schaffert!

His Paris novel, The Perfume Thief, is so charming, and being in conversation with Timothy about The Perfume Thief was my highlight of the last Omaha Lit Fest we did in back 2021. I can’t wait for his new novel, The Titanic Survivors Book Club, which is due out in April.

“This vivid novel takes on one of my favorite subjects: journalists in the war zone. Here we have ‘radio traitors’ among them, everybody wound tight, with questions of truth and trust all caught up in threat and propaganda. With fascinating parallels to our own cultural moment, The War Begins in Paris is a captivating and vibrant—and utterly present—portrait of chaos.”

—Timothy Schaffert, author of The Perfume Thief

Book Tour is Coming!

| Ted Wheeler

I’m still adding events all the time. But, in the meantime, I’m so excited to share with you all this graphic that highlights some of my main stops!

From Denver to DC, Portland to Greenville, St. Louis, Kansas City, Iowa City, and Chicago. This will be a lot of fun. If you live near one of these stops, it would be great to see you!

Jenny Tinghui Zhang Endorsement

| Ted Wheeler

Wow! I’m so grateful to have Jenny Tinghui Zhang as an advocate for my new novel, The War Begins in Paris. Jenny is a brilliant novelist, with an understanding of how historical movement and folklore shape culture. If you haven’t read her debut novel Four Treasures of the Sky, you need to check it out.

“An exhilarating rush of a novel, The War Begins in Paris tells the story of a woman torn between what is right and what is easy. With sharp, propulsive prose, Theodore Wheeler’s third novel is a tender search for courage and humanity in the face of the unthinkable.”

—Jenny Tinghui Zhang,

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/…/the…/9780316563673/