The Island

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

There are two challenges in writing about Tuckernuck Island. One is that it is difficult to set a novel in a place where not much happens. (When I asked longtime Tuckernuck residents what they do on Tuckernuck, a popular response was, “Do? Why, we visit!”) The other challenge was gaining access to Tuckernuck, because the island is privately owned. So the first people I would like to thank are Mark Williams and Jeffrey Johnsen, who took me to Tuckernuck on one of the most beautiful days of the summer last July. I fell madly in love with the place, and that was largely due to my wonderful guides. Everyone who has ever stayed or lived on Tuckernuck has a story to tell about it, and I heard a lot of those stories, the most colorful of which came from my agent, Michael Carlisle, whose family owned land on Tuckernuck for something like centuries. The summer residents of Tuckernuck are private people, and my hope is that this book celebrates the place where they live rather than exploits it.

Moving from country to city, I would like to thank all of the amazing people I have met at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, or PAFA, most especially Gerry and Rosemary Barth (aka Mary Rose Garth), who introduced me to the world of PAFA, as well as board member Anne McCollum and president of the board of directors Don Caldwell and his wife, Linda Aversa (aka Spencer and Aversa Frost). Huge thanks to Stan Greidus, for giving me the lowdown on student life, and to the president of PAFA, David Brigham, who gave me a comprehensive tour and made me feel like part of the family.

In New York, I would like to thank my dynamic-duo agenting team of Michael Carlisle and David Forrer at Inkwell Management, as well as all of the brilliant and generous minds at Little, Brown/Hachette, including my editor, Reagan Arthur, Heather Fain, Michael Pietsch, David Young, and the wizard-guru of all things trade paperback, Terry Adams.

On Nantucket, I send a big hug and a kiss out to my Inner Circle-you know who you are-who have stood by me through a couple of roller-coaster years. Of special note this year are Wendy Hudson, rock-star independent bookseller and owner of Nantucket Bookworks (who gave me the Tuckernuck story of riding around the island on a bike with no brakes!), and Wendy Rouillard, author of the Barnaby children’s books, who has tirelessly talked publishing with me for more than a decade now. A loud and enthusiastic shout-out to Chuck and Margie Marino, simply because they are two of the finest people walking the earth and I love them to bits.

Thank you to my summer nanny, Stephanie McGrath, for smiling even after a hundred-and-one trips to the Delta Fields and forty-two trips to the Hub for bubble gum. A huge thank you to Anne and Whitney Gifford for use of their house on Barnabas Lane-no book would ever get written if it weren’t for Barnabas! And thank you, always, forever, in extremis, to Heather Feather, for her love, support, friendship, and positive life force.

On the home front, thank you to my husband, Chip Cunningham, the best Mr. Mom in all the world; to my spirited, creative, and very funny sons, Maxx and Dawson, who really know how to rock out (!); and to my singing, skipping daughter, Shelby, who fills our house with sunshine each and every day.

This book is for my mother. Not only does she allow me to move back home for a month each fall so I can revise in peace, but she taught me absolutely everything I know about unconditional love. Thanks, Mom.