Among other jobs, Shreve spent three years working as a journalist in Nairobi, Kenya. She also taught creative writing at Amherst College in the 1990s.The Pilot's Wife was selected for Oprah's Book Club in March 1999. Since then, Shreve's novels have sold millions of copies worldwide. Her novel Resistance was turned into the 2003 movie with the same title Resistance, with Bill Paxton and Julia Ormond as the main characters. She now lives in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.