For a book as personal as this one is, we would not have been able to tell our story without the support and encouragement of many of the people who appear in these pages. Most of all, we’re grateful to our friends and family for their input, especially when that meant discussing experiences that were difficult for them to revisit. Besides sharing their memories, letters, and email messages with us, many of them read drafts of the manuscript and offered feedback that helped make it a much more nuanced memoir. Chiemi Karasawa and Sam Douglas in particular gave us much-appreciated criticism and advice.
We’d also like to thank our editor, Jennifer Tung, and everyone at Ballantine Books for taking on a complex, two-person memoir and supporting us with patience and enthusiasm as it evolved. We’re especially indebted to our agent, Will Lippincott, who championed this book from the beginning and always believed we could pull it off.
Finally, a nod of appreciation for each other. When we first realized that writing a memoir together was going to be tougher than we’d expected, Graham said that the most important thing was making sure we still loved each other once we were finished. We do, and we’re grateful for that, too.