Many thanks to my Hungarian friends for life, Laszlo Szotyory and Szófia Székely, who taught me so much about a different way of being when I lived in Budapest for a year, in 1994, and to George Hazy, who introduced me to Hungary’s beautiful city on the Danube.
Throughout the writing of this novel and its many revisions, I turned to those who understood and helped: Susan Henderson, Caroline Leavitt, Patry Francis, Barbara Shapiro, Risa Miller, Deb Henry, Dawn Tripp, Tish Cohen, Robin Slick, Billie Hinton, Joyce Norman, Daphne Kalotay, and my dear friends at Book Pregnant and ePubs and Pen names.
Thank you to Emma Sweeney, my brilliant agent, who saw the promise of a book early on, and to everyone at the agency for making things happen behind the scenes. Emma also brought me to Chuck Adams, extraordinary editor at Algonquin Books and wonderful human being. To the outstanding Algonquin team—Brooke Csuka, Betsy Gleick, Jude Grant, Brunson Hoole, Debra Linn, Michael McKenzie, Lauren Moseley, Craig Popelars, Ashley Mason, Elisabeth Scharlatt, and everyone else—your incredible devotion to books is inspiring and necessary to a free world. It’s an honor to be one of your authors.
I gained a deeper understanding of WWII, the holocaust, and Hungarian Jews during the 1940s from talking to generous individuals, many gone now, who took time to share some of their experiences with me—from the horrors in Europe to their harrowing journeys to get to America, where they subsequently prospered and thrived. Thank you: Hannah Entell; George Friedmann; Marika Barnett; Joel T. Klein, PhD; and Bob Berger.
Eternal thanks to my father, Melvin H. Brilliant, also gone now many years, for his WWII service in the US Army’s Rainbow Division, and for his part in helping to liberate Dachau concentration camp. Though he refused to see himself as any kind of hero, I view him differently. His memories helped guide this book.
Thank you to Mom, my sisters and brother, for keeping it real, and to my in-laws and extended family members for your talents and diverse perspectives. And to Tina Cherry, founder of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, for her incredible heart and wisdom.
To our son, thank you for teaching me more than I ever imagined about life.
To my husband, Barr, thank you for believing in my work, for your genius insights, and for walking beside me all these years, with love.