Grateful acknowledgment is made to Rosebud magazine, in which an excerpt from an earlier version of chapter 23 of this novel previously appeared.
Many thanks to the people who helped me improve this book:
Liese Mayer, Alexis Kirschbaum, Barbara Darko, Miranda Ottewell, Grace McNamee, Emily Fisher, Valentina Rice, Marie Coolman, Laura Keefe, and the whole team at Bloomsbury and Bloomsbury USA;
Claudia Ballard at WME and her assistant, Jessie Chasan-Taber;
Michelle Latiolais;
John Reed and the midnight pirates;
my mother, Helena;
my aunt Ute, who painstakingly transcribed my great-grandfather’s journals from the years between the World Wars;
the people and town of Marktheidenfeld, Germany, where my family is from and where I spent my first years as a child. The town of Heidenfeld in this book is based on Marktheidenfeld on the Main River and not on the town of Heidenfeld in the district of Schweinfurt;
Alfons Heck and Solomon Perel, who wrote unflinchingly about their time in the Hitler Youth. For those interested in learning more about the Hitler Youth and the Allied bombing raids on Germany, I’ve included a list of resources on my website;
and the biggest thanks of all to my husband, David, and daughter, Georgia Lee—you two inspire me every day.