ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you, Tommy Orange: bandmate, maestro. This novel would not exist without your example on and off the page. Thank you, Lauren Groff, for seeing the thing I was trying to write beyond the thing I’d written, and for saying so. For vital support across various drafts, thank you, Dan Barden, Marie-Helene Bertino, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Paige Lewis, Anne Meadows, Angel Nafis, Ben Purkert, Arman Salem, and Clint Smith—the book and I are immeasurably better made for having been loved by you.

Thank you to my editor, Jordan Pavlin, for always recognizing what I am trying to do even when I don’t, for modeling exuberant and passionate competence, for letting me call a book Martyr!. Thank you to my agent, Jacqueline Ko, for your trust and patience and steady stewardship. Tabia Yapp, thank you for taking care of me all these years. Thank you to my mentors, students, friends, and family, for making such distinctions meaningless.

Paige Lewis, thank you for letting me follow you around watching you watch the world. It has been my life’s education and privilege.

Reader, your attention—a measure of time, your most non-replenishable resource—is a profound gift, one I have done my best to honor. Thank you, thank you.