I would not have been able to write this book without the friends and family who read and reread its earlier drafts. Many thanks to Andrew Ewell and Hannah Pittard, Nick Soodik, Dr. Alex McQuoid, Patrick Somerville, H. Jerry Cohen, Jerry Gabriel, Mark Rader, John Watt, Rob Roensch, Ari Lieberman, Jeff Klein, Cathy Chung, Mikail Qazi, John Moses Jr., Thor Polson, Murray Warner, Dara Warner, and the Warner I live with, Joanna.
For their continuing collegial support and willingness to discuss books and writing, I’d like to thank Michael Downs and Andrew Reiner.
For her keen eye, attention to detail, and equanimity in working with a first-time novelist, I’d like to thank my editor, Lea Beresford, and the team at Bloomsbury USA for whipping this book into shape.
I’m also grateful to Christy Fletcher and Sylvie Greenberg at Fletcher & Company for their intellectual generosity and dedication to my work. Thank you both for seeing something special in these pages.
And, of course, a thank-you to my folks, Rona and Steve, who not only taught me and my sister to read and write, but with infinite patience did the same for middle school kids across the state of Maryland. For forty years.