Early on in the first draft of this novel, I realized I needed to go to India in order to have the faintest hope of writing authentically. Without hesitation, my husband, Jeff, encouraged me to do so, sending along an audio player loaded with daily messages to keep me company during my travels. In the years that followed, he graciously supported my absences from home, sometimes for weeks at a time, as I researched and revised this book. He has also been the best sounding board I could hope for. Among the great pleasures of writing this novel have been the evenings spent sitting with him, utterly absorbed in conversation about imaginary people and events and the truths that might emerge from the fiction. Jeff, you are my large-hearted human, and my gratitude is boundless.
For financial help, I thank the Elizabeth George Foundation, which funded my trip to India; Louanda McClure Kynhoff and the Juanita McClure Scholarship for generous support; the Kentucky Foundation for Women; and the Kentucky Arts Council, whose Al Smith Fellowship Award for artistic excellence helped fund the final stages of revision. Special thanks to Ashland Creek Press and JoeAnn Hart for awarding this manuscript the Siskiyou Prize for New Environmental Literature.
For invaluable space and time to write, I owe thanks first and foremost to the Kentucky Foundation for Women, which offered me a literary home at Hopscotch House, an airy, art-filled farmhouse, over the years I worked on this novel. I’m also grateful to the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts; the Mary Anderson Center; Crosshatch, for a snow-filled writing residency in the North Woods of Michigan; and Playa, for the gift of quiet and community in a vast and magical landscape.
Beyond the obvious boons they granted, the individuals and organizations mentioned above gave me the heart to keep writing when it would have been far easier to stop.
My deepest thanks to Vipul Jain, my guide at Ranthambore, who introduced me to the flora, fauna (notably Machli), geography, history, and people of that awe-inducing place. Thanks to Allan and Kristy Blanchard at Tiger Trails, who arranged my trip to India and who connected me with Vipul. Without the help and guidance of these three people, this book could not have been written.
Thanks to fellow traveler Alan Ivens for stories around the fire, and to Tarun and Dimple Bhati of the Kanha Jungle Lodge for warm hospitality. For patiently and thoughtfully answering questions that arrived by email from a total stranger, I thank conservation workers Debbie Martyr and Neil Franklin. Thanks to poet and professor Satyapriya Mukhopadhyay for introducing me to Calcutta, and to Glenny Brock for introducing me to Professor Mukhopadhyay.
Loving thanks to my mother, Laura Kahl, for raising me to be an animal lover, a traveler, and a reader, curious about the world. Thank you for traveling to India with me despite your initial misgivings, Mom. I am so happy we got to share those experiences.
Numerous readers gave me invaluable feedback on these pages. Much gratitude to these smart and talented friends. For notes and advice on early drafts, love and gratitude to Beverly Bartlett, Julie Brickman, Megan McKenzie Conca, K.L. (Kenny) Cook, Charlotte Rains Dixon, Laura Kahl, Katrina Kittle, Karen Mann, Linda Busby Parker, and Deidre Woollard. For reading and providing feedback on later revisions, love and thanks to Cindy Corpier, Kristin Matly Dennis, Lia Eastep, Carolyn Flynn, Marjetta Geerling, Jacquelin Gorman, Bridgett Jensen, Maryann Lesert, Sena Jeter Naslund, Elaine Neil Orr, Lori Reisenbichler, Julie Stewart, and Jeff Yocom. Thanks to Mimi Mondal for offering invaluable insights and advice. Surekha Kulkarni of the Beaded Treasures Project helped me understand the workings of a women’s collective. Dorian Karchmar and Wendi Gu provided helpful notes along the way.
Lesléa Newman told me the story of a deer who lay next to Matthew Shepard along the Wyoming fence line where he had been left to die. That image inspired an important moment in this novel.
For particular kindness and encouragement, I’m grateful to Kenny Cook, Elizabeth George, Richard Goodman, Leah Henderson, Silas House, Cathleen Medwick, Sy Montgomery, Lesléa Newman, Elaine Neil Orr, Molly Peacock, and Keith Reddin, who told me I had to keep going. For encouragement and help in a variety of forms, a big thank-you to Susan Campbell Bartoletti; I’ll keep the particulars just between us. For always believing and for helping me celebrate, thanks to Renée Croket and Sherry Hurley. For making a home for me in their hearts, love to Cindy Corpier, Lia Eastep, Marjetta Geerling, Jackie Gorman, Bridgett Jensen, Maryann Lesert, Terry Price, Lori Reisenbichler, and Julie Stewart. Much love and gratitude to Brady Yocom, who cheered me on from the start, and to Kiki Briggs, Kristy Urman, and Kassie Fedrick, who believed in this book and in me. And lifetime love and thanks to Hester George, who was the first person in my life to tell me that someday I’d write a book.
Heartfelt thanks to Sena Jeter Naslund, who first made me believe I could be a creative writer, and to Karen Mann, who, along with Sena, created a literary home for me and hundreds of other writers in the Spalding low-residency MFA in Writing program. Much gratitude to my colleagues in the Spalding program over the years: Sena and Karen, Kathleen Driskell, Ellyn Lichvar, Jason Hill, Gayle Hanratty, and Lynnell Edwards, for support and encouragement, and for graciously allowing and putting up with my absences. And warm thanks to the rest of my Spalding MFA family—students, faculty, and alumni—for their kindness over the years in inquiring, “How’s the tiger novel going?”
Awestruck gratitude to my literary agent, Lisa Gallagher, for championing this book with a magnificent tenacity and expertise. I can’t imagine a better guide and partner on this journey. Thank you, Lisa. Your belief in this book was a life raft.
Giddy thanks to JoeAnn Hart, who selected my manuscript for the Siskiyou Prize for New Environmental Literature. And joyful appreciation to Midge Raymond and John Yunker of Ashland Creek Press, who have dedicated themselves to publishing literature that grapples with humanity’s relationship to the animals with whom we share this fragile planet. They saw in these pages a story they thought deserved a place in the world, and they offered this novel a home. Thanks also to Midge Raymond for a smart, clear-eyed copyedit that made this book better; to Jackie Dever for her expert proofreading; and to Matt Smith for creating a knockout book cover that thrills me every time I see it.
I will end the way I began, with love and appreciation to my spouse and partner, Jeff Yocom, who introduced me to Jai, Mohan, and Leela, which is how this story began.