Thank you to my talented editor, Gabriella Mongelli, for pushing me through multiple drafts to the best possible version of this story. Gaby, thank you for your spot-on notes and patience. I love working with you! I’m grateful for the support of the entire Putnam team—my publisher, the brilliant Sally Kim; my publicist, Ashley Hewlett; Ellie Schaffer; Brennin Cummings; Nishtha Patel; Alexis Welby; Ashley McClay; the sales force; and the art department that created this dazzling cover. I know you were all responding to my emails while at home juggling children and pets and spouses, and I’m grateful.
My agent, Adam Chromy, read early drafts of this book and steered me away from a few cliffs. Thank you for being the one to always keep me on track and for believing I’ll get there no matter how far off course I wander. I feel creatively safe knowing you are always there to catch my fall.
Every story begins with a spark, and for this book, that spark was the jewelry brand Lulu Frost, designed by Lisa Salzer. Lisa, your Plaza Collection reminded me that jewelry can tell some of our best stories. Thank you for the beauty you bring into the world. I also had great fun researching estate jewelry at Pippin Vintage in New York City and A. Brandt & Son on Main Line, Philadelphia.
But writing this book wasn’t all glitter and gold: I’d always had this fantasy that somehow, if the world shut down and I had nothing to do but write, it would be easier to finish a novel. Well, be careful what you wish for. I started this novel in the summer of 2020, when the world had indeed shut down. I soon realized that it’s the balance of life and writing that makes creativity possible. I never realized how much I fed off of the normal rhythm of my days until that rhythm was disrupted. I took for granted seeing my friends—especially my author friends—at dinners out and book events where we commiserated and shared notes and supported one another. I don’t know what I would have done the past year and a half without my Thursday Zoom crew: Fiona Davis, Susie Orman Schnall, Lynda Cohen Loigman, Amy Poeppel, Nicola Harrison, and Suzanne Leopold.
To my daughters, Georgia and Bronwen, you handled a time of change and loss with grace and fortitude. I love you and I’m proud of you.
A special thank-you to the booksellers and readers who have been with me on this journey. I appreciate each and every one of you.
Finally, thank you to my husband. In the very dark days of spring 2020, you brought me to live in a bright and hopeful place so that I could write this novel: Provincetown. You turned what could have been a disaster into something beautiful. You always do. And I love you for it.