The Living

Acknowledgments

I’d like to thank the following folks for helping make this novel possible. Krista Marino: Your guidance through this story was truly remarkable. Thanks so much for all your hard work. Shy and I owe you a fancy dinner at the New York restaurant of your choice. Steve Malk: Thanks for always taking the long view and for coaching me through far more than just career decisions. Working with you is one of the best moves I’ve ever made. Matt Van Buren: Thanks for reading all fifty-eight thousand drafts of this novel. Your notes and conversations (often in a Park Slope bar) were vital to my figuring things out. Thanks also to all the great folks at Random House who work so hard to get good books into the hands of readers, especially Beverly Horowitz, Dominique Cimina, Lauren Donovan, Lisa Nadel, Adrienne Waintraub, Tracy Bloom Lerner and Lisa McClatchy. Thanks to my medical expert peeps (and friends): Quan Luong and Tanya DiFrancesco. Thanks to my supportive family: Caroline, Al, Roni, Amy, Emily, Spence, the Suns and Annie the cat.

Last but not least, I’d like to thank all the supportive friends who agreed to accompany me on the cruise I took to research this book. Oh, wait, none of you would go with me. Even when I begged and offered to pay. Even after I posted several desperate pleas on Facebook: “Come on, someone come with me on this cruise. I can’t board a ship for a full week by myself.” No responses. Zero. Oh, and the cruise I randomly picked turned out to be a “family” voyage, too. So all the moms and dads kept shooting me dirty looks and shielding their kids from me. I could read their minds: Who’s this random guy creeping around the Lido Deck by himself sipping piña coladas? So, yeah, thanks for the company, guys. Way to come through for your boy.