Writing this book was such a labor of love. Thank you to everyone who helped bring it to life:
To my agent, Meredith Kaffel Simonoff, for your insight, empathy, and support.
To my editor, Sarah Barley, for your incredible creative vision and your love for this book.
To everyone at Flatiron, including Amy Einhorn, Patricia Cave, Claire McLaughlin, Caroline Bleeke, Sydney Jeon, Bryn Clark, Brenna Franzitta, Emily Walters, Anna Gorovoy, and Melanie Sanders.
To Tom Mis, Nikki Massoud, and the Macmillan Audio team.
To Sasha Vinogradova, Kelly Gatesman, and Keith Hayes, for that glorious cover.
To Flora Hackett at WME, for your enthusiasm and drive.
To early readers Parik Kostan, Dahlia Adler, Naz Deravian, and Luna Monir.
To Emily Duncan, Patrice Caldwell, Tasha Suri, S. A. Chakraborty, Kat Howard, Gita Trelease, Shveta Thakrar, Cristina Russell, Cody Roecker, Laura Graveline, Kalie Barnes-Young, and Sami Thomason, for reading, loving, and blurbing.
To dear friends, for your support, friendship, and encouragement over the years.
To all the librarians, booksellers, bloggers, reviewers, artists, and readers, for sharing their enthusiasm, their words, and their art with me and others.
And finally, to my family, who have to witness my ups and downs during the writing process:
To Mom, for knowing and loving and understanding me, for always believing in me, and for answering all my random questions.
To Dad, for your constant love and support, and for encouraging me to be proud of and interested in Persian culture.
To Roxanne, for being my confidante, personal cheerleader, and occasional muse.
And to my grandparents and extended family, for being proud of me.