MANY PEOPLE HELPED IN THE WRITING OF THIS NOVEL, OFTEN MUCH MORE THAN THEY might suspect.
I had the honor of meeting and knowing many Liberians, Ghanaians, Malians, Nigerians, and other African-born Rhode Islanders when I practiced family medicine in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Abundance was written for them.
Julius Kolawole, Syrulwa Somah, PhD, and Henrietta White-Holder, friends and teachers, provided an early introduction to Africa and African culture. Robert Pierce, Jr. and the Liberian Health Care Initiative funded and David Joseph of Mediators Beyond Borders helped arrange a medical mission to Liberia in 2009 that formed the basis of the descriptions in this book. Gabriel Fine joined me on that trip and provided a thoughtful critique and analysis of the situation in Africa and helped put that situation in the context of international relations. He was also an early reader of the novel and provided a helpful critique of some of the ideas and attitudes in the writing. Torwon Bunnah helped us understand the situation in and around Buchanan. Merlin and its entire Buchanan staff were great hosts. James Tomarken, MD, hosted us in Monrovia, provided useful insight into the government and politics of Liberia, was a helpful reader, and has become a good friend. Jason Montecalvo told me that it was impossible to buy a cheap used four-wheel drive car in Rhode Island, because they were being bought up and shipped to Africa, something that seemed totally improbable but turned out to be true and sparked the construction of the plot. The Open Society Institute webcast the trial of Charles Taylor, so I was able to watch it from my home in Rhode Island.
Kathy Laska, Paul Stekler, Lindsey Lane, and Jane Murphy, and the sorely missed Richard Walton were helpful early readers. Ellen Bar-Zemer, Penney Stein, Sally Rotenberg, Katherine Brown, and Sarah Zacks convened their book group to critique the novel and provided very useful feedback. Ann Hood and Gail Hochman were patient and realistic with me as an amateur and encouraged this unlikely project in spite of its many shortcomings.
Special thanks to Alexandra Shelley and to Tamara Trudeau for their editing and proofreading of early versions. Special thanks as well to Kim McHale for advice and encouragement all along the way, to Celia Ehrenpreis for her support and steady hand, and to Molly Hubbard for her creative approach to reckless abandon.
Terry Bisson provided editing, advice, encouragement, and wisdom. There is more to his quiet heroism that most people will ever know. Michael Ryan is the best copy editor a writer could hope for—precise and objective but also able to see and feel the story while trying to salvage the language and the punctuation. There is no better publisher than PM Press—Ramsey Kanaan, Stephanie Pasvankias, Steven Stothard, and many others—who make books for the right reason, which is protecting our freedom by strengthening our democracy.
I’ve been supported in every way by Carol Levitt for forty years and by Gabriel Fine and Rosie Fine for twenty-eight and twenty-seven years, respectively, which makes me the world’s luckiest man.