Dear Zoe (2005)

Dear Zoe is an epistolary, young-adult novel by the American writer Philip Beard. which was first published in 2005. The narrator is fifteen-year-old Tess DeNunzio, who writes to her younger sister Zoe about her experiences after Zoe died. The novel is set in 2002 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and follows Tess's first year of high school.

Dear Zoe tells the story of 15-year-old Tess DeNunzio, who is wracked by guilt after losing her half-sister in a hit-and-run accident on the day of the September 11 attacks. The novel was selected by Booklist, a magazine of the American Library Association, as one of the ten best first novels of 2005.

When Beard originally wrote this novel, he was advised by a friend to change the format from epistolary to first person. After he made these changes and sent the manuscript to publisher, the manuscript was rejected several times. It was not until he changed it back to being an epistolary novel that he was published. Beard had a hard time publishing "Dear Zoe". After being rejected so many times, he decided to self-publish. While he was in the process of self-publishing, he went to a bookstore near his house that his friend owned. His friend and owner of the bookstore gave a copy of his manuscript to a publisher at Penguin Books, which published it. "Dear Zoe" appeared in several best book lists and the American Library Association named it one of the best books in 2005.

Background and writing

Beard took inspiration for Tess's character from his own stepdaughter who was Tess's age when he first started writing. Beard first started writing this novel before 9/11 happened. The death of Zoe was not planned until after 9/11. All Beard had originally planned was for Tess to go live with her biological father. The events of 9/11 inspired him to wonder how many other people died on that day that seemed to be forgotten about. Thus Beard's first novel was created. Beard had said in an interview that this book was emotionally draining to write. Once he was finished writing the book, Beard found it difficult to publish. His friend who owned a local bookstore gave his manuscript to a representative from Penguin Books. This representative gave the book to Viking, who contacted Beard about publishing it. After this Beard was published and Dear Zoe took off.

The writing of "Dear Zoe" was very emotional for Beard but came naturally. While the chapters originated with numbers as their titles, Beard later decided to name each one. Some of the chapters were more difficult to name than others; Beard tried to find the heart of each chapter in the novel to name the chapter. According to Beard, the most difficult part of writing “Dear Zoe” was to keep 9/11 in the background and not become overwhelmed. Beard took inspiration from his own family life and stepdaughter.[source needed]