Many people contributed expertise, moral support, feedback and life-sustaining amounts of mortadella to make this novel happen. John and Jennifer Brancato deserve some kind of very large and shiny trophy for listening to me talk endlessly about this book for years on end, for coming along for the research, for reading draft after draft, all the while sharing exquisite food and drink. I am deeply grateful to Ranieri Polese and Helene Cadario (Ranieri: I promise I will send your books back now); Sarah, Giugi and Elisa Sesti; Charlotte Sommer; Keri Hardwick; Kathleen McCleary; Lisa Bannon; Art Streiber; Glynis Costin; Lacy Crawford; Lynette Cortez; Joanna Lipari; John Paulett; Eileen Daspin; Logan Robertson; Jessica Marshall; Sandy Schuler; John Ziaukas; Loren Segan—grazie! Elisabeth Dyssegaard: You are wonderful in every way. Claudia Cross: You are a great friend as well as a great agent. My colleagues, my students and especially my fellow writers at College of the Sequoias: Thank you for being so supportive. A special thanks for early kind words from Patricia Hampl, Robert Hellenga, Julia Claiborne Johnson, Chris Pavone, Diane Leslie and John Kwiatkowski. To the real Camelia: I’m toasting you up there in horse heaven, and thanking all of those who put up with you on earth: Andrea, Silvia, Pier Giorgio, Maura. A special thank you to Mark Ganem. Salute!
Every writer stands on the shoulders of many others. I relied upon these and other works to help me ground this novel in actual history: 1956: L’anno spartiacque, by Luciano Canfora; Advertising America: The United States Information Service in Italy (1945–1956), by Simona Tobia; The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles and Their Secret World War, by Stephen Kinzer; The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames, by Kai Bird; La Ragazza del Palio, directed by Luigi Zampa; Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, by Tim Weiner; L’Italia in Movimento: Storia Sociale degli Anni Cinquanta, by Luca Gorgolini; Price of Fame: The Honorable Clare Boothe Luce, by Sylvia Jukes Morris.