Home by Nightfall

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

What do you say when a line in the acknowledgments isn’t enough? I owe so much more than a simple thanks to my editor, Charlie Spicer, and my agent, Elisabeth Weed — two people who love and understand books, who work beautifully in concert, and who have supported me and this novel in innumerable crucial ways. Consider this a placeholder until I can buy each of them a private island.

Charlie’s colleagues at St. Martin’s have been typically sterling in their efforts on behalf of Home by Nightfall, inventive and perceptive: my deepest thanks to Sally Richardson, Andy Martin, Hector DeJean, Sarah Melnyk, April Osborn, Paul Hochman, and Melissa Hastings. The same goes for all of Elisabeth’s colleagues at The Book Group, particularly Dana Murphy.

Friendship has never seemed more important to me, and I’ve been grateful for that of so many different people in the last year, including Rachel Brodhead, Matt McCarthy, John Phillips, and Ben Reiter; Hendrik and Alya Woods; Alexander Uihlein; June Kim and Daniel Hwang; my newest pals, Amelia, Madeleine, Henry, Nathan, and Jane; and so many others, who were probably thanked in the last book or will be in the next.

To Mom, Dad, Rosie, Julia, Henry, Isabelle, and Jamie, my unending affection and my ongoing feeling of wonder that I am lucky enough to be related to you.

Emily, Annabel, Lucy, thank you for being the sweetness of my life, in times that might otherwise have been hard. With you beside me even tempests are kind, and salt waves fresh in love.