TO NONNA CARMELINDA, THANK you for dedicating your life to our family and for inspiring the ways I see and taste the world. I will always miss you, and I will always remember your laugh and your melanzane. Thank you Man Yin, Janet, my mama, for being you and for letting me tell our story. Grazie mille to Michele, my papa, for being supportive of me no matter what. Love you all infinitely. Thank you to Sam, Omm, Archie and Otto for being my favourite little family in the world.
I’m eternally thankful to my best friends for being the caring and curious people that they are. Miska Mandic, Sophie Allan (née McGinn) and Samantha Lim, you are my sisters forever. Kumi Taguchi, you’ve been the most thoughtful dumpling through this whole process. Em Levins and Nicole Glavan, I’m grateful for every bit of advice you’ve given me. Thank you Naomi Shimada, Nina Agzarian, Ariane Halls, Sophie Braham, Melody Forghani, Luke Bacon, Erin Flanagan, Lisa Marigliano, Jess Damuck, Michael Ferraro, Jessie Ware, Noelle Faulkner, Chantelle Otten, Georgie Saggers, Jess Gleeson, Eb Yusuf, Geoffrey J Finch, Stevie King and Sam Hodge. Your opinions are gold.
To my editor, Tessa Feggans. Where do I even begin. You came to me with a seed of hope and I never would have predicted how much I would fall in love with this process. Even when it was hard, it was brilliant. You pushed me to dig deeper and trust myself. You respected my ideas and helped me work through every scene. I couldn’t have done it without you. You’re the best. Thank you for believing in me when I didn’t. I also love your dog.
Thank you to the entire team at Allen & Unwin for helping me do this as a clueless author virgin. Shoutout especially to Greer Gamble and Bella Breden.
To Mark Jones, Twiggy Rowley and Sam Pringle. Thank you for being the managers who have helped me bring this beast to life.
I’m especially grateful for my Tough Love podcast team: Amelia Chappelow and Mike Williams. That project led me to this one. You’ve both changed my life, and I can’t thank you enough for your endless encouragement and enthusiasm.
To every barista that made me coffee, thank you. Shout out to Primary Coffee in Sydney and Dayglow in West Hollywood for saving me on those deadline days.
And thank you Magnus for your amazing, endless support.