It’s very different writing a book with the intention of writing a book than it is writing one with no plan for its future. I gave myself a hard act to follow with When the Angels Left the Old Country, and I hope this one lives up to expectations.
As a historical fantasy The Forbidden Book owes some debts to historians and fantasists of the past. I owe an obvious debt to S. An-sky and Der Dibek. It feels like a queer Jewish fantasist’s rite of passage to do a take on the dybbuk—this is mine. The sources on women and Yiddish folklore from the website Pulling at Threads were also very useful. I took additional inspiration from Michael Stanislawski’s A Murder in Lemberg (exploring tensions within a Jewish community of the mid-nineteenth century), S.Y. Agnon’s A City in Its Fullness, and Alan Mintz’s analysis thereof in Ancestral Tales (thanks to S., who brought me a copy left over from the Association of Jewish Studies conference—a serendipitous encounter).
Thanks to my agent Rena Rossner and the team at the Deborah Harris Agency. Knowing I have experts doing my negotiations for me takes away so much stress.
Thanks and more thanks to Arthur. Your confidence in my work means so much. To Arely, Irene, Antonio, Kerry, Danielle, and the rest of the LQ team: I’m so happy to work with you all again and to be part of the wonderful lineup of LQ authors. Thanks to Will Staehle for another beautiful cover!
Thanks to all the readers whose response to When the Angels Left the Old Country has been so amazing, including the award committees for the Stonewall Book Award, the Sydney Taylor Book Award, the Printz Award, the Mythopoeic Award, the Jewish Book Award, the New England Book Award, and the AudioFile Earphones Award. Can you believe how long that list is?!
To everyone who’s chosen When the Angels Left the Old Country for a book club, a class, or to give to a friend: thank you. To the librarians who have added the book to your collections and to everyone who’s pushed back against library censorship in the last few years, thanks for standing up for teens’ right to read.
As always, the process of moving from concept to draft to book is much easier with the support of good friends. Thanks to my Lambda cohort once again, I love you. I’m so happy to have teamed up with both Jen St. Jude and Jas Hammonds for author events and am looking forward to many more. Bird Chat and Kuzu Chat, thanks for always being there. Pip and Elise (and Glimmer and Ella and Moses)—I wrote almost this whole book on the farm, so thank you as always for hosting!
To my parents: I wouldn’t be here without you. Thanks for watching Anzu when I wasn’t home. And thank you, Anzu, for your little kissies. Please stop eating my earbuds. I need those.