To the families who see aspects of their experiences reflected in these pages: You are my heroes. I wrote this book for you.
To victims and survivors of every kind of violence, and to the displaced and the disappeared: I carry you in my heart.
My thanks to Ayesha Pande, agent extraordinaire, and the Pande Literary team; to the always visionary Lauren Wein; Amy Guay, Meredith Vilarello, Alexandra Primiani, Morgan Hoit, Jessica Chin, Alison Forner, and everyone at Avid Reader Press and Simon & Schuster for your work on this book and for such a warm welcome.
My thanks to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for their generous support of my research and writing of this novel; to Viet Thanh Nguyen and Ploughshares for publishing an early excerpt; to my colleagues and students at the University of Miami, especially M. Evelina Galang and Chantel Acevedo; and to the dear friends who’ve encouraged me along the way.
My gratitude to my family in the United States and Colombia; to my nieces, the youngest Engel writers; to my husband, John Henry, for so much love and laughter; to S, G, and M, my adored companions.
Above all, I thank my mother and father for their love, their stories, and for holding on to each other no matter what.