ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

When I moved to the neighborhood built on the grounds of the former Northampton State Hospital, I was already working on this novel, but it was set elsewhere. From my writing desk, I looked across the street at the worn red brick and ancient stone wall of the hospital Coach House. Within a few months, the deep history of this place, and perhaps a few ghosts, convinced me to change the setting of the novel, which in turn transformed the story into something quite different.

Primary source material about the state hospital was critical to my understanding of the history and to imagining this story. I am grateful to the individuals who helped me locate those sources, and to those who shared their knowledge and memories. Thank you, Cheryl Clayton, Judy Snyder, Rebecca McCauley, Julie Schwager, Elise Bernier-Feeley, Elizabeth Sharpe, Laurie Sanders, Marie Panik, Pam Cartier, Robert Fleischner, Michele Reiter, David Lippman, Ellen Nigrosh, Barry Nigrosh, and Victor Caputo.

For readers who want to know more about Northampton State Hospital, I recommend the archives at Historic Northampton and the Forbes Library, and the website www.northamptonstatehospital.org, maintained by Christopher J. Sparks. The hospital’s annual reports are available online at https://archives.lib.state.ma.us. Also informative are The History of Northampton State Hospital 1858–1993, by Sanford Bloomberg and The Life and Death of Northampton State Hospital, with photographs by Stan Sherer and text by J. Michael Moore. To learn about Jewish partisans in the forests of Eastern Europe, I suggest Uncle Misha’s Partisans and They Fought Back, both written by Yuri Suhl.

Archival material can come from unexpected sources. Going through my father’s desk after his death, I found a 1948 letter from the Employee Loyalty program of the Department of Commerce, where my father worked as a chemist. The letter requested information about his affiliation with the Washington Book Shop Association. My father’s reply indicated that my mother was a member of that organization, which she joined for the discount on purchasing books. Little sparks of history fascinate me!

Once again, I deeply appreciate the experience, wisdom, and energy of publicist Mary Bisbee-Beek and the team at Red Hen Press—Kate Gale, Mark Cull, Tobi Harper, Monica Fernandez, Tansica Sunkamaneevongese, and Rebeccah Sanhueza.

I am very grateful to the members of my long-standing manuscript group, who read multiple drafts of this material and helped me shape it into the novel I wanted it to be. Thank you, Jacqueline Sheehan, Lydia Kann, Maryanne Banks, Kari Ridge, Celia Jeffries, Liz Bedell, and Jennifer Jacobson. Thank you also to my friends Jane Miller, Janet Nelson, and Lesley Peebles, who read drafts and offered their suggestions, and to Amy Romanczuk, whose email in 2002 offered the original spark for this story.

My family has been enormously supportive of my work—listening to ideas, reading drafts, offering feedback, being here. Thank you always, Robby, Jenn, Rachel, Tomas, Josie, Abel, and Carol.