Danielle Anne Trussoni is a New York Times, USA Today, and Sunday Times Top 10 bestselling novelist. She has been a Pulitzer Prize in Fiction jurist, and writes the Dark Matters column for the New York Times Book Review. She created the Writerly podcast, a weekly podcast about the art and business of writing. Her novels have been translated into 33 languages.

Her work includes five books: Falling Through the Earth (2006), Angelology (2010), Angelopolis (2012), The Fortress (2016), and The Ancestor (2020). She is the recipient of the Michener-Copernicus Society of America award, the Dana award in the novel, and the New York Times Top 10 Book of the Year for her first book. In addition to being published in The New York Times Book Review, she has also been The Guardian, The New York Times Magazine and Tin House, her writings have been widely anthologized.

Contents

• 1 Background
• 2 Writing
  • 2.1 The Puzzle Master series
  • 2.2 The Ancestor
  • 2.3 Angelology series
  • 2.4 Crypto-Z
• 3 Bibliography
• 4 Reviews
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Background

She is of Italian descent and grew up in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Trussoni graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison summa * laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in History and English in 1996 and from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she received an MFA in Fiction Writing in 2002. She has lived for extended periods in *an, Bulgaria, England and France.

Trussoni currently lives in New York. She lived in France from 2009-2012 and her memoir, The Fortress, focuses on this period in her life. She married the French filmmaker Hadrien Royo in 2016 in Brittany.

Writing

The Puzzle Master series

Danielle’s latest books, The Puzzle Master and The Puzzle Box, were bought in a two-book pre-empt from Andrea Walker at Random House in 2022. There was significant foreign rights interest, and subsequently both books have now been purchased in Spain, France, Germany, Romania, Greece, *an. See below for the full list of foreign publishers.

The Puzzle Master blends historical research with vivid fictional elements. The setting ranges from an upstate New York women’s prison to nineteenth century Prague to the secrets of the Pierpont Morgan Library, featuring a celebrated puzzle constructor who is thrust into a mystery involving an ancient religious cypher, one that will unlock shocking secrets about the universe, technology, and the fate of humankind.

Foreign publishers for The Puzzle Master include Urano in Spain, Robert Laffont/La Bete Noire in France, Hoffmann and Campe in Germany, Kedros in Greece, Hayakawa in *an, Ediziono Piemme in Italy, and Litera in Romania.

The Puzzle Box is the follow up to The Puzzle Master and will be released by Random House.

The Ancestor

The Ancestor, a literary gothic novel that explores the darker realms of ancestry and inheritance, was published by William Morrow in April 2020. The book has been widely praised, described by Kirkus Reviews as "an opulently romantic horror tale" and "gothic extravaganza." Publishers Weekly called it "an intense, darkly gothic narrative withelements of mystery, the paranormal, and legendary tales." The Ancestor is currently in development at Anonymous Content with Mark Romanek set to direct.

Angelology series

Trussoni’s first novel, Angelology (Viking Press, 2010) was a literary historical thriller described as a "tapestry of myth and biblical lore on our present-day world and plunged two star-crossed heroes into an ancient battle against mankind’s greatest enemy: the fatally attractive angel-human hybrids known as the Nephilim.”

Angelology received a great deal of attention prior to publication. Seven publishing houses vied for the publishing rights, resulting in a bidding war. Angelology went on to become a New York Times International Bestseller and has been translated into over thirty languages.

Angelopolis, the follow up to Angelology, was a New York Times bestseller and was described as "stunning" and "a must-read" by Booklist. Part historical novel, fantasy, love story, thriller, and mystery, it is a continuation of Angelology from the perspective of Verlaine.

A third book in the series will be published in installments beginning in the fall.

Crypto-Z

Trussoni is the co-creator with Hadrien Royo of the Crypto-Z audio drama podcast, a companion to The Ancestor. Crypto-Z is the story of agent Jane Silver and her partner Felix Bright as they hunt down cryptids. The Crypto-Z world originated when Trussoni was conducting research for her novel The Ancestor and evolved into a scripted audio series, produced in 2019 and early 2020 with voice actors and production team members located in New York City, London, and Los Angeles.

Upon release, the podcast was a cult hit, landing on Apple’s Top 10 list of fiction podcasts. The second and third seasons of the podcast are currently in production, and a game is also in development.

Bibliography

• Falling Through The Earth, Henry Holt and Company, 2006, ISBN:0-8050-7732-4.
• Angelology, Viking Press, 2010, ISBN:978-0-385-66861-3.
• Angelopolis, Viking Press, 2013, ISBN:978-0-670-02554-1
• The Fortress, Dey Street/Harper Collins, 2016, ISBN:978-0-062-45900-8
• The Ancestor, William Morrow/Harper Colliins, 2020 ISBN:9780062912756
• The Puzzle Master, Random House, 2023

Reviews

• Oprah Magazine, 29 Best Gothic Novels of All Time, October 21, 2020
• Goodreads, 2020's Top Horror Novels, October 5, 2020
• New York Times, You're Descended From Royalty. Here Are the Keys To Your Castle., Carol Goodman, April 7, 2020
• New York Times: Sunday Book Review, Cracked, Helene Wecker, May 3, 2013
• NPR, Angelology: A Cross-Bred Monster Of A Mystery, Jane Ciabattari, March 11, 2010
• TIME, Angelology: Wings of Desire, Lev Grossman, March 15, 2010
• New York Times: Sunday Book Review, Fallen Angels, Susann Cokal, March 3, 2010
• New York Times: Books, The War at Home, Kathryn Harrison, March 12, 2006
• USA Today, 'Angelology': A heaven-sent supernatural thrill ride, Carol Memmott, March 12, 2010
• ELLE Book Release: Angelology, Natasha Clark, March 12, 2010

References

External links

• http://danielletrussoni.com/ (Author's Website)
• Harrison, Kathryn (March 12, 2006). "The War at Home". The New York Times.
• Danielle Trussoni Angelology Interview
• Writing Workshops
• Harrison, Kathryn (March 12, 2006). "The War at Home". The New York Times.
• Falling Through the Earth Top 10 Book of 2006
• ANGELOLOGY sale
• New York Times Book Review, October 26
• New York Times Book Review, March 28
• New York Times Book Review, May 23