I CANNOT BELIEVE MY good luck in having the incredible, warm, hilarious, and smart Gail Hochman as my agent, first editor, friend, and style icon. (And undying thanks to the whole agency, Brandt & Hochman.)
As always, to the best, most revolutionary publisher on the planet, Algonquin Books. Huge thanks to the gods and goddesses: Elisabeth Scharlatt, Craig Popelars, Brunson Hoole, Michael McKenzie, Carol Schneider, Katie Ford, Betsy Gleick, Randall Lotowycz, Lauren Moseley, Ina Stern, Debra Linn, and everyone else there. And huge thanks to Jude Grant, who fixed up my wonky timeline and just about everything else.
I am dazzled to say that my editor is Chuck Adams. He unlocked this book at the synopsis level and never stopped burnishing it, all the while being amazingly kind and patient and downright brilliant. Chuck, thank you.
I couldn’t know half as much as I do about neurology and the brain without the help of the fascinating Joseph Clark, to whom I am eternally grateful. Thanks, too, to Kate Maloy, Anne Murphy, Ruthie Marlenee, Lea Kenworthy, Therese Murphy, Nicole Bokat, and Rebecca and Tim Dowling.
I received music help from (of course) expert Jeff Tamarkin. But great thanks are also owed to Mick Martin and to two of my musical heroes—Marshall Crenshaw (yeah!) and Dennis Diken of the Smithereens (yeah!).
Thanks, too, to Michelle Petrazzoulo Bokette, Bruce Cohen, and Tova Mirvis.
For a legal issue that had me in a conundrum, I need to thank the amazing attorney William D. Kickham, who not only spoke to me for hours but had me in stitches, and to Gregg Rosen. Greg Brodsky helped me with great Woodstock details, and David Rahall and Alex George talked me through real estate conundrums.
For reads and rereads and hand holding through draft after draft after draft, huge loving thanks to Hillary Strong, who shares DNA and so much more with me and who took time out of her own incredible debut to help me with my novel. Thanks, too, for her amazing family, Cotie and Owen and Charlotte and Fletcher. We love you. I am totally indebted to fellow novelist and screenwriting partner, Gina Sorell, and also to novelist and partner-in-crime, Leora Skolkin-Smith. I shower huge love and thanks for the smart suggestions and for making me laugh when I needed it most to Andrea Robinson, Mary Morris, Jessica Keener, Susan Henderson, Jeff Lyons, Christina Baker Kline, Victoria Zackheim, Dawn Tripp, Jonathan Evison, B. A. Shapiro, Jeff Tamarkin, and the amazing Jean Kwok.
And for help and support, my beloved tribe of writers and friends: Thrity Umrigar, Linda Corcoran, Ron Block, Thelma Adams, Lidia Yuknavitch, Jennifer Pastiloff, Stephanie Gangi, Sheila Weller, Tish Cohen, Mary Laura Philpott, Gina Frangello, Clea Simon, Barb Goren Gale, Jo Fisher, Amy Ferris, Suzanne Finnamore Luckenbach, Meg Waite Clayton, Jenna Blum, Robin Kall Homonoff, Sarah McCoy, Kathy L. Murphy and the fabulous Pulpwood Queens, Anne Lamott, Jane Praeger, Michael Taeckens, Yvonne Prinz, Peter Salzano, Ilvi Dulack and Michael Medeiros, Carolyn Zeytoonian, Patricia Klinger-Horn, Suzanne Simonetti, Tracey Becker, Christopher Castellani, Rochelle Jewel Shapiro, and to everyone on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for making me feel better every day.
This book is in memory of my mom, Helen Leavitt, whom I miss every single day. I’m always writing about you, Mom.
Thanks also to Stanford and UCLA Extension Writers Programs and to every single indie bookstore on the planet.
And of course, to the two beloved men in my life: my son, Max, and my husband, Jeff, who both amaze me, make me laugh, and inspire me. I am so lucky and I love you guys forever.