I’m deeply grateful to Lee Boudreaux, for her spot-on insights, unstoppable enthusiasm, wise heart, and abundant joy—this process could not have been a happier one; Duvall Osteen, for her kindness, dedication, and skill in agenting this work; Nicole Aragi, for her expert helping hand; Amanda Heller, for the precision and thoroughness of her copyediting; Carina Guiterman, Carrie Neill, Betsy Uhrig, and the entire crew at Little, Brown, for their care and professionalism; my parents, Marian Katz and Myron Poliner, for sharing with me their knowledge and memories of Woodmont, Middletown, the 1940s, and absolutely everything else I asked about; Katherine Krauss Murphy, author of Woodmont on the Sound (Postcard History Series), for a book that so helped me envision Woodmont in 1948; Maryke Barber and Rebecca Seipp of the Wyndham Robertson Library at Hollins University, for invaluable research assistance; the reference team at Russell Library in Middletown, Connecticut, for additional research assistance; Debbie Sessions and Katherine Kominis, for their special knowledge of period details; Rachel Poliner, Tina Daub, Julia Campbell Johnson, Lynne Bonde, and Melanie May, for their unflagging support and for the many helpful mini-consults; the creative writers of Hollins University, colleagues and students, for their fellowship; rabbis Daniel Zemel and Jean Eglinton, for answering my questions about Judaism; and rabbis Louis Witt and Chaim Stern, for the words of prayer from which the title and epigraph of this novel are derived. For three Januarys the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts was a peaceful and enriching environment in which to write, and over several summers Carol Ridker’s home was too. I’m grateful to have worked on this book in both places. I’m especially thankful for the time and comments of those who read this work in progress: Marty Lopez, Dan Poliner, and Karen Osborn. I offer special thanks to Barbara Wiechmann, reader of my heart as much as my words. A final and most heartfelt thanks to Edward P. Jones, whose brilliance is boundless, and whose time, talent, generosity, and friendship have meant the world to me.