This book would never have been written without the constant e-mails from readers who’d read Falling Home and After the Rain and wanted to find out what happened to Maddie Warner, the eldest daughter of Joe and Harriet from those earlier books. This novel, in many ways, is Maddie’s story. It takes place almost ten years after the end of After the Rain, and I hope it puts to rest the question of what happened to Maddie and the rest of the characters from Walton, Georgia.
Thanks to my editor, Cindy Hwang, and my agent, Amy Berkower, for their patience in listening to me talk about my ideas for this story for so long, and then waiting for this book to finally be written. I hope we can all agree that it was worth the trauma and the wait. Thank you both for your editorial insight, which saved the manuscript from being shoved under my bed and forgotten.
To terrific and talented author and friend Stephanie Scott, who graciously agreed to read the book for any errors in my Britishisms despite being in the throes of the hectic months before the publication of her first novel. I cannot thank you enough.
And thank you to Julie Zabrodska for generously agreeing to read through and correct the Czech phrases and references for accuracy and authenticity.
A huge thanks for the encouragement and extremely keen editorial eye of the amazing Genevieve Gagne-Hawes. She saw beauty and possibility in the first drafts that were invisible even to me, and helped me pull the good stuff from the wreckage. This book could not have survived without you—so thank you.
As always, thanks to my partners in crime, my critique partners Wendy Wax and Susan Crandall, who have been with me since the beginning twenty years ago, when my first book was published, and have read every word I’ve written. Thanks for always being there, and for pulling me back from the ledge when necessary.