Acknowledgments

This novel’s vision of the future was influenced by a many texts, most notably: Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future by Martin Ford; Who Owns the Future? by Jaron Lanier; Eminem, Rap, Poetry, Race: Essays edited by Scott Parker; Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem by Anthony Bozza; The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap by Matt Taibbi; Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World by Annie Lowrey; and Basic Income and How We Can Make It Happen by Guy Standing.

I’m extraordinarily grateful to those whose editorial insights were integral to this book’s completion. My agent, Erin Harris. My editor, Mark Doten. And my readers: Matthew Sharpe, Justin Taylor, and especially Robin Wasserman, who went above and beyond the call of duty.

“The Parentheses” first appeared, in slightly different form, in issue #1 of Assignment Magazine. Thanks to Benjamin Nugent for his astute suggestions and for coming up with the section’s title.

Thanks to Aspen Words, the James Merrill Foundation, Arteles Creative Center, and everyone at Soho Press and Folio Literary Management.

Thanks to the Wilson and Rapp families for their unwavering support.

Thanks to my son, Julian Douglas Rapp Wilson, for the joy you’ve brought into my life.

This book is dedicated to my wife, Sarah Rapp, whose strength, patience, intelligence, and boundless love carried me through the long span of its creation.