Acknowledgements

Thank you to Steve Crocker for advising, supporting, reading, and just for being Steve Crocker. Thank you to Eva Crocker for reading so many drafts, for the great talks about literature, and for all her insight. Thank you to Theo Crocker and Emily Pickard. Thank you to my big extended family for being so encouraging.

Melanie Little is amazing. Thank you, Melanie, for demanding that this story be the very best it could be. I feel profoundly lucky to have had the opportunity to work with you. I am eternally grateful for your vision, artistic integrity, deep intelligence, and commitment. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I am forever indebted to my publisher, Sarah MacLachlan, for her experience, her commitment to publishing, her unrelenting hard work and the joy she brings to it, her encouragement, and her faith in books. I am grateful for our long friendship, her unlimited generosity, and her sharp-eyed reading of many drafts of this novel. Thank you so much, Sarah.

Thank you also to Elisabeth Schmitz for her enthusiasm and keen eye and commitment. Thank you so much to Clara Farmer.

I would also like to thank Heather Sangster for her perfect copy edit, Allyson Latta for her fierce proofread, and Alysia Shewchuk for the beautiful cover. Thank you to Kelly Joseph and Jared Bland for helping with the birth of this baby.

These guys made for smooth sailing: Kent Christian, Robert Decker, Michele DuRand, Gord Koch, Robert MacLachlan, Coady Montgomery, and Paul Snelgrove. Many thanks.

There were early readers for this book to whom I am most grateful. Nan Love went the extra mile. Thank you, Nan. Thank you to my cherished sister, Lynn Moore, for her legal smarts, her generous reads, and big heart. Great big thank-yous to Claire Wilkshire, Lawrence Mathews, Mary Lewis, and Michael Winter. And thank you to the Burning Rock.

And thank you so much to the whole team at Anansi. I am very grateful to Laura Repas, Matt Williams, Gillian Fizet, and everyone else at Anansi who makes the production of a book a great big giant gift. Thank you all for caring so much about literature.