Paullina Simons, born as Paullina Handler in Leningrad, USSR, currently lives near New York City with her husband and some of her children. She was born in 1963 and, at the age of ten, her family immigrated to the United States. Growing up in Russia, Simons always dreamt of becoming a writer, but her dream was put on hold as she focused on learning English and adapting to a new culture.
Simons' novels have reached international bestseller lists, and she is best known for her acclaimed novels Tully, Red Leaves, and Eleven Hours, as well as the Bronze Horseman Trilogy. The Bronze Horseman, her fourth novel, is set in Leningrad, where she was born and lived for the first ten years of her life. The novel's setting is similar to the two rooms where Simons lived with her family, including her civil lawyer father, engineer mother, cousin, uncle, and aunt.
After graduating from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, Simons worked as a financial journalist and translator before publishing her first novel, Tully. Through word of mouth, Tully was welcomed by readers worldwide, and Simons continued to write more novels, including Red Leaves, Eleven Hours, The Bronze Horseman, The Bridge to Holy Cross (also known as Tatiana and Alexander), The Summer Garden, and The Girl in Times Square (also known as Lily). In addition to her novels, Simons has also written a cookbook, Tatiana's Table, which is a collection of recipes, short stories, and recollections from her best-selling trilogy of novels, The Bronze Horseman, The Bridge to Holy Cross, (also known as Tatiana and Alexander) and The Summer Garden.