This book would not exist without the help of many extraordinary people.
To the wonderful Heather Carr and Molly Friedrich, thank you for your encouragement, enthusiasm, and guidance. I’m so grateful for your persistence and your belief in my work. You make it possible for me to keep doing this thing I love most. To Lucy Carson and Hannah Brattesani, my deepest gratitude for all the work you do in support of my writing and writing life.
Lindsey Rose, thank you for believing in this story and seeing its potential from the start. Your focused attention and keen edits helped burnish each draft and made the story so much stronger. Charlotte Peters, I’m grateful for your thoughts and support during the revision process.
To Emily Canders, Nicole Jarvis, and everyone on the Dutton marketing and publicity teams—huge thanks for all the work you’ve done on my behalf. I so appreciate your labors in garnering attention for my books in the competitive world of publishing.
Isaac LeFever, thank you for your gorgeous cover design, which so beautifully captures June Lake as I imagined it.
To everyone who is reading this book, thank you for taking the time to do so. To focus your attention on fiction in a busy, distracted world is a true gift to a writer. Though June Lake is not real, it exists in my heart and imagination as a place of refuge, and now, perhaps, in yours.
I’m eternally grateful to the private book clubs, libraries, community reads programs, and independent booksellers who hosted me while I was writing this book. Staying in conversation about writing kept me motivated to complete this story.
In creating the fictional world of Charlie Crow, I’m deeply indebted to the work of many writers and researchers, including Jennifer Ackerman, Tony Angell, Dwight Chamberlain, Lyanda Lynn Haupt, Helen Macdonald, and Sy Montgomery, but none so much as John Marzluff and Colleen Marzluff. Thank you for reading the manuscript and offering your insights on crow behavior to balance my fictional flights of fancy.
Developing the story of Aiden Magnusen, I drew on my life experience but also the work of many others, including Paul Collins, David Finch, Hannah Gadsby, Temple Grandin, Alicia Kopf, Jem Lester, Madeline Ryan, and Ron Suskind.
Matthew Lore, thank you for your friendship and continued support over the years. Your belief in my writing got me started and kept me going.
To (the OG) Jacqueline Wood Smith and Esther Lynn Brown, many thanks for your insights on academic programs as well as your intriguing thoughts on bird and human behavior.
Larry Garvin, thank you for fielding questions about fictional lawsuits and antique boats. Michael Garvin, I’m indebted to you for boat trivia and insights into academics.
Clarissa Pinkola Estés wrote, “Friends who love you and have warmth for your creative life are the very best suns in the world.” Deepest gratitude to my far-flung clan for shining a light on me—especially Beth Award, Cory Jubitz, Amanda Lawrence, Michelle Nijhuis, Nicole Keim, Vanessa McRae Rice, Olivia Ullrich, Steve Zaro, and my Peishkas. And to Nancy Foley, thank you for your friendship, writerly insights, moral support, and fabulous book recommendations. I’d be lost without you.
Ann Modarelli, Margaret Garvin, Larry Garvin, and Michael Garvin—I love you more with each passing year.
To my parents, Lawrence and Patricia Garvin, my enduring gratitude for your decision to buy a house on a lake with a patch of woods behind. It changed our family forever in the best of ways.
And to Brendan Ramey, always and ever, thank you for your love, levity, and passion for life. My home with you and our creatures brings me so much joy.