First and foremost, I want to thank Elias Kulukundis and Phillips Exeter Academy for creating the George Bennett Fellowship for Creative Writing. The Fellowship allowed me the time and space I needed to complete this novel, and I will always be grateful for Exeter’s wonderfully supportive community.

I’m grateful for the people I’ve met at Hyperion: Leigh Haber, Ben Loehnen, Ellen Archer, and Bob Miller have been tirelessly enthusiastic and supportive. I also want to thank my agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, for taking a chance on a new writer.

Julie Daggett, Carolyn Doty, Tom Lorenz, Alice Lieberman, Amy Stuber, and Tina Schwarz read earlier drafts of this book and gave me thoughtful feedback. All of these people had their own work to do, and I appreciate the time they spent helping me.

I should also thank my mom, who paid more than a few months’ worth of student loan bills when things got dicey. And I’ve got to thank Mary Lamboley, who gave me her old car when she probably could have sold it. (I’m sad to say the car just gave out last summer, but it got me from Kansas to New Hampshire, no problem.)

It’s a wonderful thing to find pure generosity in people; I’ve been fortunate enough to find it many, many times.