I want to thank the following New Yorkers: my friend Akhil Sharma for exceeding duty’s call and for his careful shearing of this manuscript; Daniel Menaker, my brilliant editor and mensch nonpareil, for shepherding me to greener pastures; Matt Kellogg, a young man who knows his words, for assisting in Dan’s shepherding; and Denise Shannon, my agent, for a keen critical eye and for keeping me solvent all these years.
The Ledig House International Writers Residency in upstate New York has always been there for me when I needed a green place to write and think.
The best parts of this book, such as they are, were written under the care of Beatrice von Rezzori and the Santa Maddalena Foundation, her remarkable writers’ retreat near Donnini, Italy.