She received her Master's in Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Michigan in 2003.

She received a Fulbright scholarship to Paris, first prize in the Avery Jules Hopwood Novel Contest, and a John Steinbeck fellowship.

[1][2] In 2009, she became engaged to fellow Harvard alumnus and writer Daniel Mason, author of The Piano Tuner and A Far Country.

[3] After focusing on lost art looted during World War II for her first novel, she is currently writing her second book on a pianist searching for Hindemith's lost piano concerto after ruining his right hand practicing Brahms' Piano Concerto in B-Flat Major.

[1] It won the Edward Lewis Wallant Award and has also been released as an audio book, read by Mark Bramhall.