I wasn’t planning to write a novel this year. I was pregnant with my first baby, a little exhausted, and ready for some much-needed time off. But sometimes, as a writer, you feel like you don’t have a choice. After watching the election of 2016, marching in Washington in 2017, and hearing stories of the hundreds of women running for office in 2018, I knew that fiction had to tackle the subject of women in politics this year. Thank you to all of the women marching, speaking out, running for office, and writing fearless journalism as the world shifts violently beneath our feet.
Thank you, Christine Pride, for pushing me harder than I’ve ever been pushed by an editor. I’m fabulously lucky that the wonderful Heather Jackson had a spark of inspiration that the two of us should meet. My agent, Alexandra Machinist, told me over and over again that I could get this book finished before a baby came out of me. Alexandra, I wouldn’t want to write books without you. I promise we’ll go to Japan soon.
Thank you everyone at Simon & Shuster, including Samantha O’Hara, Elizabeth Breeden, Anduriña Panezo, and many others who helped with this book.
Some of my dearest friends are incredibly astute early readers. Thank you, Tim Kelly, for tirelessly reading every iteration of this manuscript and never being afraid to tell me when I had no idea what I was talking about.
Thank you Glynnis MacNicol, Laura Forman, Emily Foote, Sara Chadwick, Ursula Rouse, Leslie Feingerts, Ivy Givens, Amy Benziger, Jen Doll, Carolyn Murnick, and the one and only Loud Library Lady Kate Olson. Thank you to all the bookstagrammers and tireless booksellers who help readers find my books. You’re the reason anyone reads them!
And last but not least, thank you, Nick Aster, for being the most Swedish dad in America and taking our screaming baby away from me at least 50 percent of the time so that I could edit this book and take some naps. You’re one of the best copy editors I know and you always know when to feed me cheese. You still make my world make sense.