**Acknowl­edg­ments**

This book owes its exis­tence to a fel­low­ship from the Rad­cliffe Insti­tute at Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty, where I received invalu­able sup­port from two insight­ful under­grad­u­ates, Tania Domínguez-Rangel and Jesús Estra­da-Martínez. My deep­est grat­i­tude goes to my part­ner, Vir­ginia Espino, whose guid­ance was piv­otal in intro­duc­ing me to many influ­en­tial texts, includ­ing the works of notable schol­ars like Nell Irvin Painter, Mae Ngai, Kel­ly Lytle Hernán­dez, Natalia Moli­na, and Cheryl I. Har­ris.

I am also grate­ful to Kit Rach­lis from the now-end­ed *Cal­i­for­nia Sun­day Mag­a­zine* for facil­i­tat­ing my trav­els to Guatemala, which are recount­ed in this book. Rachel Pos­er, for­mer­ly of *Harper’s Mag­a­zine*, pub­lished the account of my jour­ney across the Unit­ed States. Ear­li­er, Dorothy Wick­enden and David Rem­nick at *The New York­er* shared my “Per­son­al His­to­ry” reflect­ing on expe­ri­ences in East Hol­ly­wood, amidst a white suprema­cist and a civ­il rights activist.

The con­cep­tu­al­iza­tion of many ideas pre­sent­ed in this book can be traced back to my op-ed con­tri­bu­tions to *The New York Times*, and I extend my thanks to Sewell Chan for the oppor­tu­ni­ty to pub­lish there. Yxta Maya Mur­ray was kind enough to review a draft of my man­u­script, pro­vid­ing gen­er­ous encour­age­ment. Alex Espinoza and Maris­sa K. López were instru­men­tal in ignit­ing the ini­tial spark for this project when it was mere­ly an idea.

Through­out my career as a jour­nal­ist, I’ve been blessed to have the trust and sto­ries of count­less indi­vid­u­als who have wel­comed me into their lives, with­out whom this work would not have been pos­si­ble. Last­ly, I express my heart­felt appre­ci­a­tion for my col­leagues and stu­dents at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Irvine, who have enriched my under­stand­ing of the Lati­no expe­ri­ence and inspired a vision for our Lat­inx future.

The chap­ter pro­vid­ed is the “Acknowl­edg­ments” sec­tion of Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watch­ing God.” Here is a sum­ma­rized ver­sion that fol­lows your require­ments:

—

**Acknowl­edg­ments**

The estate of Zora Neale Hurston express­es deep grat­i­tude to those ded­i­cat­ed indi­vid­u­als who tire­less­ly worked to intro­duce new gen­er­a­tions of read­ers to Hurston’s work. Spe­cial thanks are due to Robert Hemen­way and Alice Walk­er, whose efforts sig­nif­i­cant­ly con­tributed to the resur­gence of inter­est in Zora Neale Hurston. Their schol­ar­ly work has played a cru­cial role in reopen­ing con­ver­sa­tions around her con­tri­bu­tions to lit­er­a­ture.

Fur­ther­more, the estate acknowl­edges the invalu­able sup­port of the Mod­ern Lan­guage Asso­ci­a­tion mem­bers who have assist­ed in this jour­ney of redis­cov­ery. They have pro­vid­ed a plat­form for new read­ers to engage with Hurston’s rich nar­ra­tive and themes.

The estate also extends heart­felt appre­ci­a­tion to the team that made this reis­sue of Hurston’s work pos­si­ble. Acknowl­edg­ment goes to pub­lish­er Cathy Hem­ming, who has shown great com­mit­ment to pre­serv­ing and pro­mot­ing Hurston’s lega­cy. The edi­to­r­i­al guid­ance of Julia Sere­brin­sky has been instru­men­tal in shap­ing this project, ensur­ing that Hurston’s voice remains authen­tic and res­o­nant.

Final­ly, grat­i­tude is expressed to agent Vic­to­ria Sanders, whose pro­fes­sion­al sup­port and advo­ca­cy have been essen­tial in nav­i­gat­ing the com­plex­i­ties of the pub­lish­ing indus­try. Togeth­er, this col­lec­tive effort empha­sizes the impor­tance of Hurston’s work and ensures that her voice con­tin­ues to reach and inspire future gen­er­a­tions.

—

This sum­ma­ry encom­pass­es the orig­i­nal acknowl­edg­ments’ intent and mean­ing while main­tain­ing the struc­ture and cru­cial nouns.

The “Acknowl­edg­ments” sec­tion express­es sin­cere grat­i­tude to numer­ous indi­vid­u­als who played vital roles in the cre­ation of the book. The author acknowl­edges the sig­nif­i­cant sup­port from Paul Lucas and the team at Jan­klow & Nes­bit, whose encour­age­ment was cru­cial for the author’s per­se­ver­ance in the pub­lish­ing indus­try. Addi­tion­al­ly, thanks are extend­ed to Michael Row­ley of Rebel­lion Pub­lish­ing and Michael Hom­ler of St. Martin’s Press for their will­ing­ness to take a chance on the author’s work despite its obscu­ri­ty.

The author’s heart­felt appre­ci­a­tion specif­i­cal­ly goes to Navah Wolfe, who first read the sto­ry when it was a sim­pler, more depress­ing novel­la and moti­vat­ed the author to trans­form it into a more sub­stan­tial nov­el. The author hopes that Wolfe can see their influ­ence in the final man­u­script.

The list con­tin­ues with thanks to Kira and Claire for their con­struc­tive crit­i­cism on ear­ly drafts. Heather receives a shout-out for sup­port­ing the author with numer­ous chai drinks. Antho­ny Taboni is rec­og­nized as an enthu­si­as­tic sup­port­er for a future fan club. Friends includ­ing Therese, Craig, Kim, Aaron, and Gary are thanked for review­ing the man­u­script through its var­i­ous revi­sions with­out dis­cour­ag­ing the author.

Karen Fish is acknowl­edged for impart­ing valu­able lessons about the writ­ing craft, while John is cel­e­brat­ed as a cru­cial sound­ing board for lit­er­ary dis­cus­sions. Mick­ey is humor­ous­ly men­tioned for his good nature after being writ­ten into the book and sub­se­quent­ly “mur­dered” in var­i­ous ways. Jack is appre­ci­at­ed for keep­ing the author’s ego ground­ed when nec­es­sary. Jen receives grat­i­tude for being the first to read a man­u­script before its offi­cial pub­li­ca­tion, and Max and Freya are thanked for remind­ing the author of life’s true pri­or­i­ties.

The author notes that this acknowl­edg­ment is par­tial, stress­ing that the book’s essence is clear with­out these con­tri­bu­tions from friends and col­leagues. The sec­tion con­cludes with a light-heart­ed nod to future projects, sig­nal­ing a con­tin­u­a­tion of the writ­ing jour­ney.

**Acknowl­edg­ments Sum­ma­ry**

The acknowl­edg­ments sec­tion express­es deep grat­i­tude towards numer­ous indi­vid­u­als who con­tributed to the cre­ation of *The Min­istry of Time*. The author thanks their edi­tors, Fed­eri­co Andorni­no and Mar­go Shick­man­ter, for their bril­liance in refin­ing the text, result­ing in a more beau­ti­ful man­u­script. Spe­cial appre­ci­a­tion goes to Chris Well­belove, the author’s agent, and his assis­tant, Emi­ly Fish, both of whom stayed com­mit­ted to under­stand­ing the book’s heart through mul­ti­ple read­ings.

The sup­port of the Aitken Alexan­der Asso­ciates team, includ­ing Lisa Bak­er and Lau­ra Otal, is acknowl­edged for help­ing find new plat­forms for the book. The author extends thanks to the Scep­tre and Avid Read­er Press teams, high­light­ing the enthu­si­asm and ded­i­ca­tion of each mem­ber involved in the pub­li­ca­tion process.

The author express­es grat­i­tude to Anne Mead­ows for her con­struc­tive feed­back dur­ing cru­cial rewrites. They high­light the friend­ships formed over a shared inter­est in his­tor­i­cal fig­ures relat­ed to the Arc­tic, specif­i­cal­ly the invalu­able con­tri­bu­tions from friends who read ear­li­er ver­sions of the man­u­script. Their insights were piv­otal for the book’s exis­tence, and the author specif­i­cal­ly men­tions influ­ences from AMC’s TV series *The Ter­ror*, which led to meet­ing Gra­ham Gore.

The author cred­its Rach for inspir­ing char­ac­ter details, par­tic­u­lar­ly Arthur’s Lieu­tenant Owen and the ori­gin of a sig­nif­i­cant signet ring, leav­ing the cir­cum­stances of its giv­ing to the read­ers’ inter­pre­ta­tion. The acknowl­edg­ments also note reliance on a vari­ety of schol­ar­ly resources relat­ed to Gra­ham Gore and Arc­tic his­to­ry, notably Edmund Wuyts at Arctonauts.com and Rus­sell Pot­ter, whose blog revealed crit­i­cal his­tor­i­cal insights.

In dis­cussing the research mate­ri­als that informed the Arc­tic con­tent, sev­er­al sig­nif­i­cant texts and unpub­lished diaries from promi­nent his­tor­i­cal fig­ures are list­ed. The author takes full respon­si­bil­i­ty for any inac­cu­ra­cies in the book derived from this research.

Final­ly, heart­felt thanks go to the author’s fam­i­ly for their unwa­ver­ing sup­port, as well as to friends for their kind­ness and will­ing­ness to engage in exten­sive dis­cus­sions about his­tor­i­cal sub­jects. A spe­cial men­tion is reserved for Sam, whose belief in the author from the out­set under­scores the pro­found per­son­al sig­nif­i­cance of this work.

**Acknowl­edg­ments, Mar­tyr!**

In the acknowl­edg­ments sec­tion, the author express­es deep grat­i­tude to sev­er­al indi­vid­u­als who con­tributed to the cre­ation of the nov­el.

The author begins by thank­ing Tom­my Orange, whom they describe as a band­mate and mae­stro, acknowl­edg­ing that the nov­el would not exist with­out his influ­ence both on and off the page. They extend their thanks to Lau­ren Groff for rec­og­niz­ing the deep­er essence of the author’s writ­ing, beyond what was ini­tial­ly pre­sent­ed. The author appre­ci­ates the crit­i­cal sup­port received from var­i­ous indi­vid­u­als through­out dif­fer­ent drafts, includ­ing Dan Bar­den, Marie-Helene Berti­no, Ingrid Rojas Con­tr­eras, Paige Lewis, Anne Mead­ows, Angel Nafis, Ben Purk­ert, Arman Salem, and Clint Smith, assert­ing that their love has sig­nif­i­cant­ly enhanced both the book and the author’s craft.

The acknowl­edg­ment con­tin­ues with a heart­felt men­tion of the author’s edi­tor, Jor­dan Pavlin. The author appre­ci­ates Pavlin’s abil­i­ty to under­stand their inten­tions even when they them­selves were unclear, prais­ing her for embody­ing pas­sion­ate com­pe­tence and for endors­ing the dar­ing title, *Mar­tyr!*. The author also thanks their agent, Jacque­line Ko, for her trust, patience, and steady guid­ance. Spe­cial recog­ni­tion is giv­en to Tabia Yapp, who has tak­en care of the author through the years, and to men­tors, stu­dents, friends, and fam­i­ly, for cre­at­ing dis­tinc­tions that are ulti­mate­ly mean­ing­less in the con­text of sup­port.

More­over, Paige Lewis receives thanks for the invalu­able expe­ri­ence of shad­ow­ing her as she observes the world, which the author regards as a sig­nif­i­cant part of their life’s edu­ca­tion and priv­i­lege. The author clos­es the acknowl­edg­ments by express­ing grat­i­tude to the read­er, rec­og­niz­ing their atten­tion as a mea­sure of time and a pre­cious, non-replen­ish­able resource. The author’s com­mit­ment to hon­or­ing this gift is con­veyed through a heart­felt reit­er­a­tion of thanks.

In the acknowl­edg­ments sec­tion of “Revenge of the Tip­ping Point: Over­sto­ries, Super­spread­ers, and the Rise of Social Engi­neer­ing,” the author reflects on the cre­ative process and the wis­dom of econ­o­mist Albert O. Hirschman. Hirschman describes the nature of cre­ativ­i­ty as sur­pris­ing and unpre­dictable; he argues that one must mis­judge the com­plex­i­ty of a task to ful­ly engage cre­ative resources. This con­cept res­onat­ed with the author, who began writ­ing the book with the inten­tion of sim­ply refresh­ing “The Tip­ping Point” for its twen­ty-fifth anniver­sary. How­ev­er, as the writ­ing pro­gressed, it became clear that this endeav­or would trans­form into a com­plete­ly new work, demon­strat­ing the very essence of Hirschman’s insights.

The author’s jour­ney was great­ly sup­port­ed by con­tri­bu­tions from var­i­ous col­leagues and friends. Jacob Weis­berg played a cru­cial role by encour­ag­ing a return to “The Tip­ping Point.” The author express­es grat­i­tude to Tali Emlen, who pro­vid­ed exten­sive research assis­tance, and Nina Lawrence, who con­tributed sig­nif­i­cant­ly by facil­i­tat­ing numer­ous inter­views. Acknowl­edg­ments extend to Adam Grant, Ben Naddaf-Hafrey, Eloise Lyn­ton, Dave Wirtshafter, Mala Gaonkar, and Charles Ran­dolph for their valu­able feed­back on ear­ly drafts.

Addi­tion­al­ly, the author thanks Asya Much­nick, the edi­tor at Lit­tle, Brown, for her metic­u­lous read­ings that improved the man­u­script, and cred­it is giv­en to Jael Goldfine for fact-check­ing and Allan Fal­low for copy­edit­ing. The author’s agent, Tina Ben­nett, is also rec­og­nized for her endur­ing sup­port.

Ulti­mate­ly, the most heart­felt grat­i­tude goes to the author’s family—Kate, Edie, and Daisy—highlighting their vital role in pro­vid­ing inspi­ra­tion and sup­port through­out the writ­ing process. The acknowl­edg­ments cel­e­brate not only the col­lab­o­ra­tion and men­tor­ship that went into cre­at­ing the book but also the per­son­al con­nec­tions that fuel the author’s pas­sion and moti­va­tion.

The chap­ter titled “Acknowl­edg­ments” express­es the author’s grat­i­tude toward var­i­ous indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions that con­tributed to the pub­li­ca­tion and devel­op­ment of their work. The author begins by acknowl­edg­ing Grove Atlantic as a source of great luck and priv­i­lege for pub­lish­ing their book. Spe­cif­ic thanks are direct­ed to Mor­gan Entrekin for stead­fast sup­port, Judy Hot­tensen for her under­stand­ing of mid­west­ern Eng­lish and Bore­al Raven, and Deb Sea­ger for her help­ful­ness and mem­o­ry.

Elis­a­beth Schmitz, the author’s edi­tor, receives par­tic­u­lar praise for her keen insight and abil­i­ty to shape the book effec­tive­ly; the author high­lights her tal­ent for iden­ti­fy­ing core issues and nur­tur­ing a man­u­script into its final form. Addi­tion­al­ly, the author express­es admi­ra­tion for Kel­ly Winton’s art­work on the book cov­er, describ­ing it as mag­nif­i­cent.

Grat­i­tude extends to Marin Takikawa and Lucy Car­son from the Friedrich Agency, with a spe­cial men­tion of Mol­ly Friedrich for her con­cise, wit­ty approach and belief in com­pelling sto­ry­telling, traits that any writer would appre­ci­ate in an advo­cate.

Fur­ther acknowl­edg­ments are made to per­son­al con­nec­tions, includ­ing Liz for pro­vid­ing Kellan’s octo­pus, Mike for intro­duc­ing the eter­nal law of elec­tric bass, Lee for embody­ing Odysseus, and Lin for rep­re­sent­ing Homer. The author men­tions John, who built their mahogany writ­ing desk, adorned by Reed’s paint­ing of the North Wind. Final­ly, Robin is rec­og­nized for being a devot­ed read­er, not­ed for her abil­i­ty to dis­cern when a char­ac­ter goes astray with­in the nar­ra­tive.

Over­all, this chap­ter encap­su­lates the author’s appre­ci­a­tion for both pro­fes­sion­al and per­son­al influ­ences that guid­ed and sup­port­ed them through­out their writ­ing jour­ney.

The Acknowl­edg­ments sec­tion express­es deep grat­i­tude to numer­ous indi­vid­u­als who con­tributed to the cre­ation of the book, par­tic­u­lar­ly rec­og­niz­ing the late John Lewis for his invalu­able coop­er­a­tion and insights. The author recounts their meet­ing with Lewis in Feb­ru­ary 2019 in Atlanta, where he pledged sup­port for the project. Due to the pan­dem­ic, per­son­al inter­views were replaced by mean­ing­ful phone con­ver­sa­tions, pro­vid­ing the author with rich nar­ra­tives about Lewis’s life. Michael Collins, Lewis’s chief of staff, played a cru­cial role by facil­i­tat­ing access to var­i­ous indi­vid­u­als and ver­i­fy­ing the fac­tu­al integri­ty of the nar­ra­tive.

A sig­nif­i­cant part of the author’s research involved inter­view­ing around 250 indi­vid­u­als, includ­ing promi­nent fig­ures like Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, Pres­i­dent Clin­ton, and Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Clin­ton, who shared their expe­ri­ences and mem­o­ries of John Lewis. Their con­tri­bu­tions, along with insights from Lewis’s fam­i­ly, col­leagues, and friends, are cru­cial in explor­ing his life, espe­cial­ly where archival mate­ri­als were sparse.

The author extends grat­i­tude to those who shared pri­vate mate­ri­als or con­duct­ed inter­views with Lewis, high­light­ing the efforts of Archie Allen, who had attempt­ed to write a biog­ra­phy of Lewis in 1968, and pro­vid­ed exten­sive archival access. Col­lab­o­ra­tions with his­to­ri­ans and insti­tu­tions con­tributed to the depth of the research, includ­ing access to Hen­ry Louis Gates’s mate­ri­als from “Find­ing Your Roots” and invalu­able record­ings from Dan­ny Lyon and Sean Wilentz.

The acknowl­edg­ments also spot­light the sup­port from archivists and librar­i­ans at dif­fer­ent insti­tu­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly those at Rut­gers Uni­ver­si­ty and the New York Pub­lic Library, who facil­i­tat­ed research efforts. The author appre­ci­ates schol­ar­ly con­tri­bu­tions from var­i­ous his­to­ri­ans and jour­nal­ists, enrich­ing the nar­ra­tive with diverse per­spec­tives on the civ­il rights move­ment.

The author acknowl­edges the back­ing from Rut­gers Uni­ver­si­ty, cit­ing sup­port from var­i­ous offi­cials and col­leagues who fos­tered a con­ducive envi­ron­ment for research. Exter­nal grants and fel­low­ships fur­ther enabled the com­ple­tion of the project, with thanks giv­en to mul­ti­ple orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­u­als for their finan­cial and moral sup­port.

The author’s research assis­tants, par­tic­u­lar­ly Kather­ine Thai, are com­mend­ed for their con­tri­bu­tions. The emo­tion­al sup­port from writ­ing groups, men­tors, and fam­i­ly mem­bers, espe­cial­ly dur­ing the chal­leng­ing phas­es of writ­ing, is also not­ed. Final­ly, the author ded­i­cates the work to their par­ents, cred­it­ing them for inspir­ing a ded­i­ca­tion to social jus­tice themes explored through­out Lewis’s life, which is now cap­tured in this biog­ra­phy .

The chap­ter titled “Acknowl­edg­ments” from “The Boys of River­side” express­es deep grat­i­tude from the author towards var­i­ous indi­vid­u­als and groups who sup­port­ed the cre­ation of the book. The focus is on the expe­ri­ences sur­round­ing the author’s report­ing jour­ney, pri­mar­i­ly cen­tered on the foot­ball com­mu­ni­ty in River­side.

The author acknowl­edges the con­tri­bu­tion of play­ers and coach­es who per­mit­ted him to observe their lives close­ly in var­i­ous set­tings, includ­ing side­lines and meet­ings. He empha­sizes the behind-the-scenes sup­port from a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of women, par­tic­u­lar­ly deaf women, who played vital roles through­out the process. A stand­out fig­ure is Tere­sa Maxwell, a senior admin­is­tra­tor at the Cal­i­for­nia School for the Deaf, River­side (CSDR), who gra­cious­ly offered her spare bed­room, facil­i­tat­ing the author’s tran­si­tion into a deaf house­hold.

The author cred­its sev­er­al indi­vid­u­als at CSDR, includ­ing for­mer super­in­ten­dent Nan­cy Hli­bok Amann and ath­let­ics pro­gram head Lau­ra Edwards, for their excep­tion­al assis­tance. Eri­ka Thomp­son, the school’s com­mu­ni­ca­tions head, also goes unrec­og­nized for her patience amidst the author’s numer­ous inquiries. The role of Meli­ka Angoorani, the author’s Amer­i­can Sign Lan­guage (ASL) inter­preter, is high­light­ed as cru­cial to the book’s suc­cess, with addi­tion­al acknowl­edg­ments to inter­preters who helped with inter­views.

Fur­ther­more, the author pays trib­ute to his wife, who pro­vid­ed unwa­ver­ing sup­port and encour­age­ment despite the addi­tion­al house­hold demands result­ing from his absences. He rec­og­nizes the inte­gral role of his edi­tor at The New York Times, Julie Bloom, and col­leagues who cov­ered for him dur­ing his time away. The author express­es immense grat­i­tude to his lit­er­ary agent, Jane Dys­tel, and his Knopf Dou­ble­day edi­tor, Jason Kauf­man, for their belief in his project.

The chap­ter extends its appre­ci­a­tion to experts at Gal­laudet Uni­ver­si­ty and oth­ers who aid­ed the author in under­stand­ing Deaf Cul­ture and the edu­ca­tion­al land­scape. The author shares thanks to pho­tog­ra­ph­er Eric Melz­er for cap­tur­ing moments through­out the process and acknowl­edges the invalu­able input from fam­i­ly mem­bers, par­tic­u­lar­ly his par­ents, David and Isabelle. He con­cludes by express­ing his grat­i­tude to the broad­er deaf com­mu­ni­ty for their unex­pect­ed kind­ness and sup­port dur­ing his jour­ney.

The acknowl­edg­ments sec­tion of “The God of the Woods” express­es deep grat­i­tude from the author towards sev­er­al indi­vid­u­als and resources that con­tributed to the devel­op­ment of the nov­el. The author begins by thank­ing Bob and Kel­ly Nessle, Kevin Gagan, Kevin Hynes, Kath­leen Bow­er, Anna Serot­ta, Jean Dom­mer­muth, Max O’Keefe, Rebec­ca Moore, and Steve Williams for their inter­views on var­i­ous rel­e­vant top­ics, not­ing that any fic­tion­al­iza­tion is sole­ly their respon­si­bil­i­ty.

Fur­ther appre­ci­a­tion is direct­ed to the authors of crit­i­cal pub­li­ca­tions that pro­vid­ed valu­able insights dur­ing the writ­ing process, includ­ing notable works like Anne LaBastille’s *Woodswoman*, Robert J. Koester’s *Lost Per­son Behav­ior*, Ralph Wal­do Emer­son­’s “Self-Reliance”, and Hen­ry David Thore­au’s *Walden*. The author also acknowl­edges con­tri­bu­tions from *Creem* mag­a­zine, William Murray’s *Adven­tures in the Wilder­ness; or, Camp-Life in the Adiron­dacks*, Bar­ney Fowler’s *Adiron­dack Album*, Paul Schae­fer­’s *Adiron­dack Explo­rations: Nature Writ­ings of Ver­planck Colvin*, and Peter Bronski’s *At the Mer­cy of the Moun­tains*.

Expres­sions of grat­i­tude extend to var­i­ous pub­lish­ing pro­fes­sion­als and teams, includ­ing Seth Fish­man, Rebec­ca Gard­ner, and the Gern­ert team, as well as Sarah McGrath and the River­head team, empha­siz­ing their pro­fes­sion­al sup­port and friend­ship. Addi­tion­al­ly, the author thanks col­leagues and stu­dents from the MFA pro­gram at Tem­ple Uni­ver­si­ty: Don Lee, Cara Blue Adams, Jena Osman, Pat­tie McCarthy, Rich Deeg, and the late Dr. JoAnne Epps.

The acknowl­edg­ments also men­tion indi­vid­u­als like Alex Gilvar­ry and Mac Casey, who pro­vid­ed feed­back on ear­ly drafts of the nov­el. The author high­lights the moral sup­port and cama­raderie from friends, fam­i­ly, and peers such as Murph Casey and Jes­si­ca Geller.

Final­ly, heart­felt grat­i­tude is expressed to ances­tors who made the Adiron­dack Moun­tains their home, espe­cial­ly Cheryl and Ger­ald Parkhurst, and to family—Mac, Annie, and Jack—for pro­vid­ing moti­va­tion and bal­ance in the author’s writ­ing jour­ney.

In the acknowl­edg­ment sec­tion of “The Last One at the Wed­ding,” the author express­es heart­felt grat­i­tude to a mul­ti­tude of indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions that con­tributed to the com­ple­tion of the book. The author begins by giv­ing thanks to those who helped orga­nize the wed­ding, specif­i­cal­ly men­tion­ing Rick Chillot, Mike Rus­sell, Doo­gie Horner, Grace War­ring­ton, Jill War­ring­ton, Steve Hock­en­smith, Ian Doesch­er, Kel­ly Chancey, Patrick Caulfield, Dave Mur­ray, Grady Hen­drix, and Michael Kory­ta. Their sup­port played a crit­i­cal role in the plan­ning process.

Flow­ers are an inte­gral part of any wed­ding, and the author cred­its Alweina Design and Will Staehle for the unique­ly grue­some bou­quets fea­tured in the sto­ry, along­side appre­ci­a­tion for Will’s work on the book’s sin­is­ter cov­er design. The author nar­rates a per­son­al moment of need­ing a qui­et space to write, which was gra­cious­ly pro­vid­ed by David Bor­genicht, who offered access to his office build­ing with­out any rent, show­cas­ing the kind­ness that aid­ed the author’s writ­ing process.

The author acknowl­edges Ian, the UPS dri­ver, who took time to assist with ques­tions, humor­ous­ly hop­ing for for­give­ness regard­ing any cre­ative lib­er­ties tak­en with his char­ac­ter. Mean­while, Zack Wag­man, the edi­tor, is praised as a source of calm dur­ing over­whelm­ing moments, with the author detail­ing Wagman’s enthu­si­as­tic sup­port and insight­ful edi­to­r­i­al input.

Fur­ther thanks go to the team at Flatiron/Macmillan, specif­i­cal­ly Cat Ken­ney, Mar­lena Bit­tner, and oth­ers for their invalu­able behind-the-scenes sup­port. The author also express­es appre­ci­a­tion for Doug Stew­art, their lit­er­ary agent, ensur­ing that their sto­ries reached a broad­er audi­ence, along with thanks to his ded­i­cat­ed assis­tants.

Last­ly, the author rais­es a toast to their spouse, Julie Scott, their chil­dren, Sam and Anna, and extend­ed fam­i­ly, rec­og­niz­ing their unwa­ver­ing sup­port through­out the writ­ing jour­ney while high­light­ing that, thank­ful­ly, they did not serve as inspi­ra­tion for the book’s con­tent. This acknowl­edg­ment sec­tion brims with grat­i­tude toward var­i­ous indi­vid­u­als and teams, empha­siz­ing the col­lab­o­ra­tive nature of the cre­ative process.

### Acknowl­edg­ments Sum­ma­ry

This book took years to com­plete, and the jour­ney was unpre­dictable, even for the author. Grate­ful­ness is extend­ed to those who patient­ly wait­ed dur­ing the exten­sive phas­es of research, writ­ing, and revi­sions, with the hope that this effort proves reward­ing. Writ­ing acknowl­edg­ments is likened to cre­at­ing an Oscar speech, filled with emo­tion and grat­i­tude towards many indi­vid­u­als.

Spe­cial thanks are giv­en to Chris, a sym­bol of self­less­ness; to Cullen, Eleanor, Mar­garet, and Louisa, the author’s pride; to the moth­er, Julie, for her unwa­ver­ing patience over twen­ty-nine years while endur­ing count­less his­tor­i­cal facts; to Car­olyn, who humor­ous­ly reflects on missed syn­chro­nized swim­ming oppor­tu­ni­ties; and to Sara, whose effi­cien­cy is unmatched, bring­ing vibran­cy even to mun­dane tasks.

The author ded­i­cates their work to Lexi, who embod­ies pos­i­tiv­i­ty, and appre­ci­ates the team at SME for their cru­cial sup­port dur­ing the writ­ing process. Deep grat­i­tude is expressed towards Adam Grant and Richard Pine. Also acknowl­edged are Helen Healey-Cun­ning­ham and Kather­ine Howe, who pro­vid­ed con­struc­tive chal­lenges to the author’s ideas, shap­ing the book into a sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion.

Fur­ther thanks go to Heather Jack­son and Kari Anton for facil­i­tat­ing con­nec­tions with var­i­ous char­ac­ters fea­tured in the man­u­script. Adri­enne, known for shar­ing delight­ful memes, and James, who is described as small yet mighty, are also rec­og­nized.

Sup­port­ive fig­ures like Car­los Whit­tak­er, Nicole Wal­ters, and Lau­ren Kachinske are men­tioned for their moti­va­tion­al encour­age­ment. Long-time friend Mary Wag­n­er is appre­ci­at­ed for a remark­able favor.

A spe­cial men­tion high­lights Jer­maine Fowler, JeMar Tis­by, and Jas­mine Holmes, evok­ing sin­cere grat­i­tude. The author embraces the com­mu­ni­ty of “Gov­ern­erds,” feel­ing hon­ored to be part of their impact­ful move­ment, and extends warmth and affec­tion to the Gov­ern­erd Book Club, encap­su­lat­ing the essence of con­nec­tion with both grat­i­tude and cama­raderie.

In the acknowl­edg­ments sec­tion of this book, the author express­es deep grat­i­tude towards sev­er­al key fig­ures in their lit­er­ary jour­ney. The author begins by thank­ing their edi­tor, Lee Boudreaux, stat­ing that col­lab­o­rat­ing with her has been a sig­nif­i­cant high­light of their career. Fol­low­ing this, they acknowl­edge Fiona McCrae of Gray­wolf Press, with whom they have shared an enrich­ing work­ing rela­tion­ship for twen­ty-nine years. The author appre­ci­ates the artis­tic free­dom and ongo­ing sup­port from both Fiona and the Gray­wolf team, cred­it­ing it as a valu­able gift that has shaped their writ­ing tra­jec­to­ry.

Fur­ther, the author extends heart­felt thanks to their agent, Melanie Jack­son, who they describe as a guide, keep­er, and first read­er. Melanie, along with Fiona, is regard­ed as fam­i­ly, show­cas­ing the close-knit rela­tion­ships formed through their pro­fes­sion­al pur­suits. The author’s best friend and wife, Danzy Sen­na, receives spe­cial men­tion for being a con­stant source of inspi­ra­tion and con­nec­tion to the world. Their sons, Hen­ry and Miles, are also rec­og­nized for rein­forc­ing the author’s sense of being part of a larg­er com­mu­ni­ty.

In a nod to lit­er­ary her­itage, the author con­cludes with a ref­er­ence to Mark Twain, not­ing the influ­ence of his humor and human­i­ty on their work. This men­tion high­lights the author’s appre­ci­a­tion for lit­er­ary leg­ends and the role they play in shap­ing con­tem­po­rary writ­ers. The acknowl­edg­ment clos­es with a humor­ous reflec­tion on the con­trast of heav­en for the cli­mate and hell for an antic­i­pat­ed lunch with Twain, blend­ing the author’s grat­i­tude with a touch of whim­sy, encap­su­lat­ing the essence of their acknowl­edg­ments.

Over­all, this sec­tion is a heart­felt trib­ute to the rela­tion­ships and influ­ences that have cul­ti­vat­ed the author’s lit­er­ary path, rein­forc­ing the impor­tance of con­nec­tion and sup­port in the writ­ing jour­ney.

In the acknowl­edg­ments of *We Solve Mur­ders*, the author express­es grat­i­tude to var­i­ous indi­vid­u­als and groups who con­tributed to the jour­ney of writ­ing this new book fea­tur­ing fresh char­ac­ters. The author hopes read­ers enjoyed the adven­ture and reas­sures them that while the set­ting is new, their dis­tinc­tive style remains. They humor­ous­ly men­tion that read­ers need not wor­ry about an over­ly com­plex nar­ra­tive on obscure top­ics, empha­siz­ing the light-heart­ed­ness of their writ­ing.

The heart­felt appre­ci­a­tion extends first and fore­most to the read­ers, acknowl­edg­ing that char­ac­ters and sto­ries are brought to life through their engage­ment. The author intro­duces char­ac­ters Amy, Steve, and Rosie, promis­ing their return in future adven­tures while teas­ing upcom­ing escapades that include Steve’s glob­al trav­els and Amy’s auda­cious leaps. There’s also a desire to explore char­ac­ters like US Cus­toms offi­cer Car­los Moss and the antic­i­pa­tion sur­round­ing *Ram­page 8*.

The author feels a con­nec­tion to past char­ac­ters and assures read­ers that they inhab­it the same uni­verse. They even sug­gest that a jour­ney to Coop­ers Chase by Steve could be made in a cou­ple of hours, com­ment­ing humor­ous­ly on pos­si­ble dri­ving routes.

Spe­cial thanks go to book­sellers and librar­i­ans, whose roles in shar­ing sto­ries are vital, and acknowl­edg­ment of the pub­lish­ing team at Viking is giv­en, with spe­cif­ic men­tion of edi­tor Har­ri­et Bour­ton for her sup­port. Numer­ous indus­try pro­fes­sion­als, includ­ing the sales teams and copy­ed­i­tors, are thanked for their con­tri­bu­tions, as is the cov­er design­er Richard Brav­ery, whose cre­ative insights res­onate with the author.

Beyond the pro­fes­sion­al grat­i­tude, the author reflects on per­son­al con­nec­tions, thank­ing their fam­i­ly, par­tic­u­lar­ly their moth­er Bren­da, and ded­i­cat­ing the book to Aun­tie Jan—whose mem­o­ry is cher­ished. Acknowl­edg­ment is also extend­ed to Liesl Von Cat, the author’s writ­ing com­pan­ion, and to their chil­dren, Ruby and Son­ny, for being won­der­ful adults, and to their wife Ingrid, who inspires and sup­ports their cre­ative endeav­ors.

In clos­ing, the author express­es excite­ment for future sto­ries yet to come, invit­ing read­ers to join them next year for more adven­tures with beloved char­ac­ters. The acknowl­edg­ments encap­su­late a warm embrace of com­mu­ni­ty, cre­ativ­i­ty, and famil­ial love as the foun­da­tion of the writ­ing jour­ney.

The acknowl­edg­ments of “The Heav­en & Earth Gro­cery Store” reflect on the author’s deep grat­i­tude to Sy Friend, a sig­nif­i­cant men­tor and the retired direc­tor of The Vari­ety Club Camp for Hand­i­capped Chil­dren in Worces­ter, Penn­syl­va­nia. The author recalls their trans­for­ma­tive sum­mers spent at the camp over forty years ago, where Sy impart­ed lessons on inclu­siv­i­ty, love, and accep­tance through actions rather than mere words.

The author thanks var­i­ous key fig­ures, includ­ing Leo and Vera Posel, who donat­ed land for the camp, and Bill Saltz­man, a trustee who believed in the author’s poten­tial as a coun­selor, despite their ini­tial appli­ca­tion for a dish­wash­er posi­tion. A spe­cial men­tion is made of Vin­ny Caris­si­mi, a for­mer co-coun­selor, who lat­er became a suc­cess­ful attor­ney, demon­strat­ing the endur­ing friend­ships formed at the camp.

Sy Friend, described as a remark­able and com­pas­sion­ate fig­ure, served at the camp from his teens until retire­ment. He was known for his vibrant per­son­al­i­ty, con­nect­ing deeply with campers, and fos­ter­ing an envi­ron­ment rich in diver­si­ty long before it became a soci­etal pri­or­i­ty. The author empha­sizes that despite low pay and demand­ing work, the staff were enriched by Sy’s guid­ance, with many going on to achieve sig­nif­i­cant suc­cess in their fields.

A touch­ing anec­dote fea­tures Lam­ont Gar­land, a for­mer camper who over­came the chal­lenges of cere­bral pal­sy. He vivid­ly remem­bers being part of an assem­bly at the Widen­er Memo­r­i­al School, wit­ness­ing a spon­ta­neous stand­ing ova­tion for Sy, which reflects the pro­found impact Sy had on the chil­dren. This moment encap­su­lates the spir­it of joy and cel­e­bra­tion that defined Sy’s inter­ac­tions with campers—an array of dis­abil­i­ties unit­ed in admi­ra­tion for a man who under­stood the essence of love and equal­i­ty.

Ulti­mate­ly, these reflec­tions under­score the author’s intent behind the book—a trib­ute to Sy’s endur­ing lega­cy of com­pas­sion and the vibrant com­mu­ni­ty he nur­tured at the camp, pro­mot­ing a life defined by love and com­mit­ment to equal­i­ty. The acknowl­edg­ments con­clude with the author’s sig­na­ture from Lam­bertville, New Jer­sey, dat­ed Decem­ber 2022.

In the acknowl­edg­ments sec­tion of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the author express­es heart­felt grat­i­tude to a mul­ti­tude of indi­vid­u­als who played sig­nif­i­cant roles in their cre­ative jour­ney. The author opens with a spe­cial men­tion to their read­ers, acknowl­edg­ing the patience and sup­port received over the years. They appre­ci­ate the mes­sages, gifts, and kind­ness of their audi­ence, hop­ing nev­er to dis­ap­point them.

Next, the author reflects on per­son­al rela­tion­ships, espe­cial­ly with Char­lie, George, Isabel­la, and Vic­to­ria, rec­og­niz­ing the strug­gles they over­came togeth­er as a fam­i­ly, ulti­mate­ly arriv­ing at a place of peace and growth. The author extends deep grat­i­tude to Amy Ein­horn for her unwa­ver­ing sup­port and guid­ance, cred­it­ing her with instill­ing con­fi­dence in the author’s abil­i­ties.

Emad Akhtar is praised for his excep­tion­al tal­ent which great­ly impact­ed the author’s cre­ative process, while Jen­nifer Joel is rec­og­nized for her fear­less sup­port and sto­ry­telling men­tor­ship. The bond with Jason Rich­man, a cher­ished friend, is high­light­ed through shared laugh­ter and mem­o­rable moments.

The author also acknowl­edges var­i­ous teams and indi­vid­u­als, includ­ing those at pub­lish­ing hous­es, for their col­lab­o­ra­tive efforts. They express appre­ci­a­tion for Jordy Moblo’s long-stand­ing friend­ship and stead­fast belief in the author’s work, along with grat­i­tude toward Lori Kusatzky for her relent­less sup­port and exper­tise.

The con­tri­bu­tions of mar­ket­ing and pro­duc­tion teams are not­ed, along­side thanks to teach­ers and men­tors like Helen Carr, who have pro­vid­ed guid­ance on tech­ni­cal aspects of writ­ing. The author empha­sizes the impor­tance of book­sellers, blog­gers, and review­ers, who have sig­nif­i­cant­ly influ­enced their career.

Spe­cial men­tions include per­son­al rela­tion­ships and friend­ships that pro­vid­ed inspi­ra­tion and lev­i­ty through­out the writ­ing process. The author con­cludes with a desire to repeat this process in the future, sig­ni­fy­ing an opti­mistic out­look and com­mit­ment to con­tin­ue cre­at­ing.

The tone through­out the acknowl­edg­ments is sin­cere, warm, and reflec­tive, encap­su­lat­ing the appre­ci­a­tion felt for those who have con­tributed to the author’s jour­ney.

The acknowl­edg­ments sec­tion of the book high­lights the author’s grat­i­tude towards sev­er­al indi­vid­u­als and groups that played a cru­cial role in the cre­ation of the book. The author express­es heart­felt thanks to agents Mol­ly Friedrich and Lucy Car­son for their guid­ance and sup­port from the pro­pos­al stage through to pub­li­ca­tion, acknowl­edg­ing Dana Spec­tor for mak­ing dreams hap­pen, Marin Takikawa for pro­vid­ing impor­tant edi­to­r­i­al feed­back, and Han­nah Brat­te­sani for facil­i­tat­ing the book’s inter­na­tion­al reach. Heather Carr is also men­tioned for her patience in address­ing all of the author’s inquiries.

Car­o­line Zan­can is cel­e­brat­ed as not only a phe­nom­e­nal edi­tor but also a friend, with the author appre­ci­at­ing her excep­tion­al qual­i­ties that enhance both books and writ­ers. The entire Hen­ry Holt team is rec­og­nized, with spe­cif­ic thanks to Amy Ein­horn for her belief in the man­u­script, Caitlin Mul­rooney-Lys­ki for her career-impact­ing con­tri­bu­tions, and Lori Kusatzky and Leela Gebo for their seam­less oper­a­tional sup­port. Acknowl­edg­ment is giv­en to the edi­to­r­i­al team’s thought­ful atten­tion to detail and to Nico­lette See­back Rug­giero for her strik­ing jack­et design.

The author express­es grat­i­tude to those who pro­vid­ed valu­able feed­back on var­i­ous man­u­script ver­sions, includ­ing Diana Spech­ler, Shelly Oria, Cristi­na Rodriguez, and sev­er­al oth­ers who shared insights and sup­port through­out the writ­ing process. The sense of friend­ship and com­mu­ni­ty among these indi­vid­u­als is empha­sized, mak­ing the writ­ing jour­ney less soli­tary and more enrich­ing.

The author also pays trib­ute to lit­er­ary giants such as Vir­ginia Woolf and Char­lotte Bron­të, whose lega­cy inspires con­tem­po­rary writ­ers. Spe­cial thanks are offered to read­ers, book­sellers, and var­i­ous uni­ver­si­ties that sup­port­ed the work, under­scor­ing the col­lab­o­ra­tive and com­mu­nal nature of lit­er­a­ture. The acknowl­edg­ments con­clude with appre­ci­a­tion for fam­i­ly, includ­ing par­ents and sib­lings, whose enthu­si­asm for the author’s writ­ing fos­ters a unique con­nec­tion between her cre­ative and per­son­al lives. The sec­tion ends with a nod to the kind­ness of strangers met along the years, whose inter­ac­tions pro­vid­ed com­fort and inspi­ra­tion, fram­ing the book as a heart­felt thank-you let­ter to those who have made a dif­fer­ence.

Wait­ing ai

Wait­ing ai

Wait­ing ai

The acknowl­edg­ment sec­tion of “Out­live” gives a heart­felt and reveal­ing glimpse into the col­lab­o­ra­tive efforts and per­son­al deter­mi­na­tion that brought the book to fruition. Ini­tial­ly set aside in ear­ly 2020 after the authors were fired by their book agent and pub­lish­er for delayed man­u­script sub­mis­sion, the project saw new life thanks to the inter­ven­tion of Michael Ovitz. Ovitz’s encour­age­ment led to the man­u­script being pre­sent­ed to Diana Baroni at Pen­guin Ran­dom House, mark­ing the turn­ing of the tide for its pub­li­ca­tion.

The author cred­its the indis­pens­able con­tri­bu­tions of co-author Bill Gif­ford, who played a piv­otal role in trans­form­ing the tech­ni­cal draft into a relat­able and acces­si­ble nar­ra­tive. Gif­ford is laud­ed as the author’s “trans­la­tor,” help­ing to con­vey com­plex sub­jects with nuance and detail, and becom­ing a close friend in the process. Bob Kaplan, the head of research through 2021, is acknowl­edged for his rig­or­ous push­back on ideas and for his work in orga­niz­ing the book’s notes and fact-check­ing, along­side col­leagues Vin Miller, Rachel Har­rus, Sam Lip­man, and Kathryn Birken­bach.

The author express­es grat­i­tude for the gen­er­ous expert feed­back received on var­i­ous sec­tions of the man­u­script from spe­cial­ists across fields such as neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­eases, sleep, can­cer, nutri­tion, caloric restric­tion, cen­te­nar­i­ans, rapamycin, mTOR, ath­er­o­scle­ro­sis, and sta­bil­i­ty. This, along­side the rich expe­ri­ences gar­nered from inter­ac­tions with patients and pod­cast guests, under­scores the col­lab­o­ra­tive and expe­ri­en­tial foun­da­tion of the book.

Thank­ful nods are also giv­en to friends and pro­fes­sion­als who sup­port­ed the book’s devel­op­ment, from ear­ly read­ing feed­back to the care­ful craft­ing of the book’s cov­er design by Rodri­go Cor­ral and team. The author also rec­og­nizes the sup­port and sac­ri­fice of his family—highlighting his wife Jil­l’s unwa­ver­ing sup­port despite the pro­jec­t’s demands on his time, and express­ing a desire to now devote more time to his chil­dren, Olivia, Reese, and Ayr­ton.

Bill Gif­ford, in his part of the acknowl­edg­ment, extends a spe­cial thank you to Martha McGraw for her sup­port and coach­ing through­out the chal­leng­ing project, as well as to Bob Kaplan for his exten­sive research assis­tance. This sec­tion reveals the deeply human aspect of cre­at­ing “Out­live,” cen­tered on resilience, col­lab­o­ra­tion, and the inter­play of pro­fes­sion­al and per­son­al ded­i­ca­tion.

The acknowl­edg­ments sec­tion of this book reveals the author’s com­plex rela­tion­ship with sto­ry­telling and the exhaus­tive process of bring­ing a nar­ra­tive to life. The author shares a can­did glimpse into their per­son­al strug­gles, includ­ing the fear of for­get­ting those who have sup­port­ed them along the way. Amidst these chal­lenges, they high­light the inte­gral role of their sup­port sys­tem, par­tic­u­lar­ly empha­siz­ing their father’s con­tri­bu­tion, who was a sound­ing board for the ini­tial brain­storm­ing ses­sions that took place dur­ing walks in East Nashville. This pas­sage under­scores the author’s appre­hen­sion towards the for­mal act of acknowl­edg­ment, dri­ven by a fear of omis­sion caused by a self-admit­ted poor mem­o­ry linked to their immer­sion in the world of books. The author’s reflec­tion on this process is tinged with irony, espe­cial­ly giv­en the the­mat­ic focus of the book on mem­o­ry and its frail­ties. They con­fess that writ­ing serves as a means to cap­ture fleet­ing ideas before they escape, an activ­i­ty that para­dox­i­cal­ly both con­tributes to and mit­i­gates their for­get­ful­ness. The author’s ambiva­lence towards acknowl­edg­ments, their strug­gle with mem­o­ry, and the key sup­port pro­vid­ed by their father, all serve to pref­ace the nar­ra­tive that fol­lows, pro­vid­ing a glimpse into the per­son­al chal­lenges and influ­ences that have shaped the cre­ation of the book.

You are being pro­vid­ed with a book chap­ter by chap­ter. I will request you to read the book for me after each chap­ter. After read­ing the chap­ter, 1. short­en the chap­ter to no less than 300 words and no more than 400 words. 2. Do not change the name, address, or any impor­tant nouns in the chap­ter. 3. Do not trans­late the orig­i­nal lan­guage. 4. Keep the same style as the orig­i­nal chap­ter, keep it con­sis­tent through­out the chap­ter. Your reply must com­ply with all four require­ments, or it’s invalid.
I will pro­vide the chap­ter now.

ACKNOWL­EDG­MENTs
Thank you to the fol­low­ing peo­ple who make my life blessed beyond all
mea­sure:
To my hus­band, Josh: You got me through this year. (Through many
years before it, but this one in par­tic­u­lar.) I don’t have the words to describe
how much I love you, and how grate­ful I am for all that you do. For the
count­less meals you cooked so I didn’t have to stop writ­ing; for the
hun­dreds of dish­es you washed after­ward so I could run back into my office
and keep work­ing; for the hours of dog-walk­ing, espe­cial­ly those ear­ly
morn­ings, just so I could get some sleep … This book is now a real book
because of you. Thank you for car­ry­ing me when I was too weary, for
wip­ing away my tears when my heart was heavy, and for com­ing with me
on so many adven­tures around the world.
To Annie, who can’t read this, but who deserves cred­it, any­way: Every
sec­ond with you is a gift. Thank you for mak­ing a fair­ly soli­tary job not the
slight­est bit lonely—and for the laugh­ter and joy and love you’ve brought
into my life. Love you, baby pup.
To Susan Den­nard, my Thread­sis­ter and anam cara: Pret­ty sure I’m a
bro­ken record at this point, but thank you for being a friend worth wait­ing
for, and for the fun, tru­ly epic times we’ve had togeth­er. To Alex Brack­en,
Erin Bow­man, Lau­ren Billings, Christi­na Hobbs, Vic­to­ria Ave­yard, Jen­nifer
L. Armen­trout, Gena Showal­ter, and Claire Legrand: I’m so lucky to call
you guys my friends. I adore you all.
To my agent, Tamar Rydzin­s­ki: What would I do with­out you? You’ve
been my rock, my guid­ing star, and my fairy god­moth­er from the very
begin­ning. Sev­en books lat­er, I still don’t have the words to express my
grat­i­tude. To my edi­tor, Cat Onder: Work­ing with you on these books has
been a high­light of my career. Thank you for your wis­dom, your kind­ness,
and your edi­to­r­i­al bril­liance.
To my phe­nom­e­nal teams at Blooms­bury world­wide and CAA—Cindy
Loh, Cristi­na Gilbert, Jon Cas­sir, Kath­leen Far­rar, Nigel New­ton, Rebec­ca
McNal­ly, Natal­ie Hamil­ton, Sonia Palmisano, Emma Hop­kin, Ian Lamb,
Emma Brad­shaw, Lizzy Mason, Court­ney Grif­fin, Eri­ca Bar­mash, Emi­ly
Rit­ter, Grace Whoo­ley, Eshani Agraw­al, Nick Thomas, Alice Grigg, Elise
Burns, Jen­ny Collins, Linette Kim, Beth Eller, Diane Aron­son, Emi­ly
Klopfer, Melis­sa Kavon­ic, Don­na Mark, John Can­dell, Nicholas Church,
Adi­ba Oemar, Hermione Law­ton, Kel­ly de Groot, and the entire for­eign
rights team—it’s an hon­or to know and work with you. Thank you for
mak­ing my dreams come true. To Cassie Homer: Thank you for every­thing.
You are an absolute delight.
To my fam­i­ly (espe­cial­ly my par­ents): I love you to the moon and back.
To Louisse Ang, Nico­la Wilksin­son, Ele­na Yip, Sasha Als­berg, Vil­ma
Gon­za­lez, Damaris Car­di­nali, Alexa San­ti­a­go, Rachel Domin­go, Jamie
Miller, Alice Fanchi­ang, and the Maas Thir­teen: your gen­eros­i­ty, friend­ship,
and sup­port mean the world to me.
And, last­ly, to my read­ers: You guys are the great­est. The actu­al great­est.
None of this would have been pos­si­ble with­out you. Thank you from the
very bot­tom of my heart for all that you do for me and my books.
HEARTS HAVE BEEN HEALED.
POWER GAMES HAVE BEGUN.
WAR IS UPON THEM.
Don’t miss the next book in this
New York Times best­selling series
Catch all the lat­est
news and updates from
THEWORLDOFSARAHJMAAS.COM
• Sneak peeks at new titles
• Details of sign­ings and events
• Share your mes­sages and pic­tures
You can also find
SARAH J. MAAS online at
TWITTER: @SJMaas
TUMBLR: sjmaas.tumblr.com
INSTAGRAM: the­re­al­sj­maas
PINTEREST: sarahj­maas
FACEBOOK: Throne of Glass

You are being pro­vid­ed with a book chap­ter by chap­ter. I will request you to read the book for me after each chap­ter. After read­ing the chap­ter, 1. short­en the chap­ter to no less than 300 words and no more than 400 words. 2. Do not change the name, address, or any impor­tant nouns in the chap­ter. 3. Do not trans­late the orig­i­nal lan­guage. 4. Keep the same style as the orig­i­nal chap­ter, keep it con­sis­tent through­out the chap­ter. Your reply must com­ply with all four require­ments, or it’s invalid.
I will pro­vide the chap­ter now.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It is a tes­ta­ment to the grace, faith, and aplomb of my edi­tor, Sarah
Can­tin, that when I told her I want­ed to do some­thing com­plete­ly
dif­fer­ent that hinged on the read­er believ­ing a woman had been
mar­ried sev­en times, she said, “Go for it.” With­in the safe­ty of that
trust, I felt free to cre­ate Eve­lyn Hugo. Sarah, it is with my most
sin­cere thanks that I acknowl­edge how lucky I am to have you as my
edi­tor.
Big, big thanks must also go to Car­ly Wat­ters for all that she has
done for my career. I feel for­tu­nate to con­tin­ue work­ing with you on so
many books togeth­er.
To my incom­pa­ra­ble rep team: You all are so good at your jobs and
seem to do them with such pas­sion that I feel as if I’m armed at all
sides. There­sa Park, thank you for com­ing aboard and hit­ting the
ground run­ning with a strength and ele­gance that is tru­ly unmatched.
With you at the helm, I feel incred­i­bly con­fi­dent I can reach new
heights. Brad Mendel­sohn, thank you for run­ning the show with such
a strong belief in me and for deal­ing with the intri­cate details of my
neu­ro­sis with such warmth. Sylvie Rabineau and Jill Gillett, your
intel­li­gence and skill are per­haps only out­shone by your com­pas­sion.
To Ash­ley Kruythoff, Krista Shipp, Abi­gail Koons, Andrea Mai,
Emi­ly Sweet, Alex Greene, Blair Wil­son, Vanes­sa Mar­tinez, and
every­one else at WME, Cir­cle of Con­fu­sion, and Park Lit­er­ary &
Media, I am hon­est­ly over­whelmed at how seam­less­ly you all
con­sis­tent­ly deliv­er excel­lence. Spe­cial thanks for Vanes­sa para el
español. Me sal­vaste la vida.
To Judith, Peter, Tory, Hillary, Albert, and every­one else at Atria
who works to help my books make their way in the world, I thank you
deeply.
To Crys­tal, Janay, Robert, and the rest of the BookSparks team, you
are unstop­pable, bril­liant pub­lic­i­ty machines and won­der­ful humans.
One thou­sand prayer hands emo­jis to you and all that you do.
To all the friends who have shown up time and time again, to hear
me read, to buy my books, to rec­om­mend my work to oth­er peo­ple,
and to sur­rep­ti­tious­ly put my books at the front of the store, I am
for­ev­er grate­ful. To Kate, Court­ney, Julia, and Monique, thank you for
help­ing me write about peo­ple dif­fer­ent from myself. It is a tall order
that I take on humbly and it helps so much to have you by my side.
To the book blog­gers who write and tweet and snap pho­tos all in the
effort of telling peo­ple about my work, you are the rea­son I can
con­tin­ue to do what I do. And I have to give it up to Natasha Minoso
and Vil­ma Gon­za­lez for just straight killin’ it.
To the Reid and Hanes fam­i­lies, thank you for sup­port­ing me, for
cheer­ing the loud­est, and for always being there when I need you.
To my moth­er, Mindy, thank you for being proud of this book and
always so eager to read any­thing I write.
To my broth­er, Jake, thank you for see­ing me the way I want to be
seen, for under­stand­ing what I’m try­ing to do at such a deep lev­el, and
for keep­ing me sane.
To the one and only Alex Jenk­ins Reid: Thank you for
under­stand­ing why this book was so impor­tant to me and for being so
into it. But more impor­tant, thank you for being the kind of man who
encour­ages me to shout loud­er, dream big­ger, and take less shit.
Thank you for nev­er mak­ing me feel as if I should make myself small­er
to make any­one else feel bet­ter. It brings me an absolute­ly
unpar­al­leled amount of pride and joy to know that our daugh­ter is
grow­ing up with a father who will stick by her side no mat­ter who she
is, who will show her how she should expect to be treat­ed by mod­el­ing
it for her. Eve­lyn did not have that. I did not have that. But she will.
Because of you.
And last­ly, to my baby girl. You were tee­ny tee­ny tiny—I believe the
size of half the peri­od on the end of this sentence—when I start­ed
writ­ing this book. And when I fin­ished it, you were mere days away
from mak­ing your entrance. You were with me every step of the way. I

You are being pro­vid­ed with a book chap­ter by chap­ter. I will request you to read the book for me after each chap­ter. After read­ing the chap­ter, 1. short­en the chap­ter to no less than 300 words and no more than 400 words. 2. Do not change the name, address, or any impor­tant nouns in the chap­ter. 3. Do not trans­late the orig­i­nal lan­guage. 4. Keep the same style as the orig­i­nal chap­ter, keep it con­sis­tent through­out the chap­ter. Your reply must com­ply with all four require­ments, or it’s invalid.
I will pro­vide the chap­ter now.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is the fruit of thir­ty years of try­ing to under­stand how peo­ple deal
with, sur­vive, and heal from trau­mat­ic expe­ri­ences. Thir­ty years of clin­i­cal
work with trau­ma­tized men, women and chil­dren; innu­mer­able dis­cus­sions
with col­leagues and stu­dents, and par­tic­i­pa­tion in the evolv­ing sci­ence
about how mind, brain, and body deal with, and recov­er from,
over­whelm­ing expe­ri­ences.
Let me start with the peo­ple who helped me orga­nize, and even­tu­al­ly
pub­lish, this book. Toni Bur­bank, my edi­tor, with whom I com­mu­ni­cat­ed
many times each week over a two-year peri­od about the scope,
orga­ni­za­tion, and spe­cif­ic con­tents of the book. Toni tru­ly under­stood what
this book is about, and that under­stand­ing has been crit­i­cal in defin­ing its
form and sub­stance. My agent, Bret­tne Bloom, under­stood the impor­tance
of this work, found a home for it with Viking, and pro­vid­ed crit­i­cal sup­port
at crit­i­cal moments. Rick Kot, my edi­tor at Viking, sup­plied invalu­able
feed­back and edi­to­r­i­al guid­ance.
My col­leagues and stu­dents at the Trau­ma Cen­ter have pro­vid­ed the
feed­ing ground, lab­o­ra­to­ry, and sup­port sys­tem for this work. They also
have been con­stant reminders of the sober real­i­ty of our work for these
three decades. I can­not name them all, but Joseph Spinaz­zo­la, Mar­garet
Blaustein, Roslin Moore, Richard Jacobs, Liz Warn­er, Wendy D’Andrea,
Jim Hop­per, Fran Gross­man, Alex Cook, Mar­la Zuck­er, Kevin Beck­er,
David Emer­son, Steve Gross, Dana Moore, Robert Macy, Liz Rice-Smith,
Pat­ty Levin, Nina Mur­ray, Mark Gapen, Car­rie Pekor, Deb­bie Korn, and
Bet­ta de Boer van der Kolk all have been crit­i­cal col­lab­o­ra­tors. And of
course Andy Pond and Susan Wayne of the Jus­tice Resource Insti­tute.
My most impor­tant com­pan­ions and guides in under­stand­ing and
research­ing trau­mat­ic stress have been Alexan­der McFar­lane, Onno van der
Hart, Ruth Lanius and Paul Frewen, Rachel Yehu­da, Stephen Porges, Glenn
Saxe, Jaak Panksepp, Janet Oster­man, Julian Ford, Brad Stol­back, Frank
Put­nam, Bruce Per­ry, Judith Her­man, Robert Pynoos, Berthold Ger­sons,
Ellert Nijen­huis, Annette Streeck-Fish­er, Mary­lene Cloitre, Dan Siegel, Eli
New­berg­er, Vin­cent Felit­ti, Robert Anda, and Mar­tin Teich­er; as well as my
col­leagues who taught me about attach­ment: Edward Tron­ick, Karlen
Lyons-Ruth, and Beat­rice Beebe.
Peter Levine, Pat Ogden, and Al Pes­so read my paper on the
impor­tance of the body in trau­mat­ic stress back in 1994 and then offered to
teach me about the body. I am still learn­ing from them, and that learn­ing
has since then been expand­ed by yoga and med­i­ta­tion teach­ers Stephen
Cope, Jon Kabat-Zinn, and Jack Korn­field.
Sebern Fish­er first taught me about neu­ro­feed­back. Ed Ham­lin and
Lar­ry Hir­sh­berg lat­er expand­ed that under­stand­ing. Richard Schwartz
taught me inter­nal fam­i­ly sys­tems (IFS) ther­a­py and assist­ed in help­ing to
write the chap­ter on IFS. Kip­py Dewey and Cis­sa Cam­pi­on intro­duced me
to the­ater, Tina Pack­er tried to teach me how to do it, and Andrew
Borth­wick- Leslie pro­vid­ed crit­i­cal details.
Adam Cum­mings, Amy Sul­li­van, and Susan Miller pro­vid­ed
indis­pen­si­ble sup­port, with­out which many projects in this book could
nev­er have been accom­plished.
Licia Sky cre­at­ed the envi­ron­ment that allowed me to con­cen­trate on
writ­ing this book; she pro­vid­ed invalu­able feed­back on each one of the
chap­ters; she donat­ed her artis­tic gifts to many illus­tra­tions; and she
con­tributed to sec­tions on body aware­ness and clin­i­cal case mate­r­i­al. My
trusty sec­re­tary, Angela Lin, took care of mul­ti­ple crises and kept the ship
run­ning at full speed. Ed and Edith Schon­berg often pro­vid­ed a shel­ter from
the storm; Bar­ry and Lor­rie Gold­en­sohn served as lit­er­ary crit­ics and
inspi­ra­tion; and my chil­dren, Hana and Nicholas, showed me that every
new gen­er­a­tion lives in a world that is rad­i­cal­ly dif­fer­ent from the pre­vi­ous
one, and that each life is unique—a cre­ative act by its own­er that defies
expla­na­tion by genet­ics, envi­ron­ment, or cul­ture alone.
Final­ly, my patients, to whom I ded­i­cate this book—I wish I could
men­tion you all by name—who taught me almost every­thing I know—

You are being pro­vid­ed with a book chap­ter by chap­ter. I will request you to read the book for me after each chap­ter. After read­ing the chap­ter, 1. short­en the chap­ter to no less than 300 words and no more than 400 words. 2. Do not change the name, address, or any impor­tant nouns in the chap­ter. 3. Do not trans­late the orig­i­nal lan­guage. 4. Keep the same style as the orig­i­nal chap­ter, keep it con­sis­tent through­out the chap­ter. Your reply must com­ply with all four require­ments, or it’s invalid.
I will pro­vide the chap­ter now.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to every­one for read­ing Brid­get and Rhys’s sto­ry! This
cou­ple has con­sumed me for months, and now that they’re final­ly
out in the world, I hope you love them as much as I do!
I espe­cial­ly want to thank the peo­ple who’ve helped make this book
a real­i­ty:
To my alpha and beta read­ers Brit­tney, Brit­tany (with an a), Yaneli,
Sarah, Rebec­ca, Aishah, and Allisyn for your con­struc­tive feed­back.
You helped make the sto­ry shine, and I am so grate­ful for your hon-
esty and atten­tion to detail.
To my PA Amber for keep­ing me sane and always being there when
I need a sec­ond opin­ion. What would I do with­out you?
To my edi­tor Amy Brig­gs and proof­read­er Krista Bur­dine for work-
ing with me on my ever-chang­ing and some­times tight dead­lines.
You are rock­stars!
To Quirah at Temp­ta­tion Cre­ations for the amaz­ing cov­er and the
teams at Give Me Books and Wild­fire Mar­ket­ing for mak­ing release
day a dream.

You are being pro­vid­ed with a book chap­ter by chap­ter. I will request you to read the book for me after each chap­ter. After read­ing the chap­ter, 1. short­en the chap­ter to no less than 300 words and no more than 400 words. 2. Do not change the name, address, or any impor­tant nouns in the chap­ter. 3. Do not trans­late the orig­i­nal lan­guage. 4. Keep the same style as the orig­i­nal chap­ter, keep it con­sis­tent through­out the chap­ter. Your reply must com­ply with all four require­ments, or it’s invalid.
I will pro­vide the chap­ter now.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
If you fol­low me on Insta­gram, you thought this book was going to be writ­ten in
emo­jis, didn’t you?
Thank you to the team who worked so hard to help me bring my mem­oir
into the world, includ­ing: Cade Hud­son; Math­ew Rosen­gart; Cait Hoyt; my
col­lab­o­ra­tors (you know who you are); and Jen­nifer Bergstrom, Lau­ren Spiegel,
and every­one at Gallery Books.
Thank you to my fans: You have my heart and my grat­i­tude for­ev­er. This
book is for you.

You are being pro­vid­ed with a book chap­ter by chap­ter. I will request you to read the book for me after each chap­ter. After read­ing the chap­ter, 1. short­en the chap­ter to no less than 300 words and no more than 400 words. 2. Do not change the name, address, or any impor­tant nouns in the chap­ter. 3. Do not trans­late the orig­i­nal lan­guage. 4. Keep the same style as the orig­i­nal chap­ter, keep it con­sis­tent through­out the chap­ter. Your reply must com­ply with all four require­ments, or it’s invalid.
I will pro­vide the chap­ter now.

Acknowl­edg­ments
This book began as an ode to Sy Friend, the retired direc­tor of The Vari­ety
Club Camp for Hand­i­capped Chil­dren in Worces­ter, Pa. Like many works
of fic­tion, it mor­phed into some­thing else. I worked at the camp for four
sum­mers when I was a stu­dent at Ober­lin Col­lege. That was more than forty
years ago, but Sy’s lessons of inclu­siv­i­ty, love, and acceptance—delivered
not with con­de­scend­ing kind­ness but with deeds that showed the recip­i­ents
the path to true equality—remained with me for the rest of my life. In that
spir­it, I am thank­ful to the entire Vari­ety Club fam­i­ly: the late Leo and Vera
Posel, who donat­ed the land for the camp in the thir­ties; the late camp
trustee Bill Saltz­man, who insist­ed I become a coun­selor when I applied for
a job as a dish­wash­er at age nine­teen; my friend and for­mer co-coun­selor
Vin­ny Caris­si­mi, who lat­er became a bril­liant, two-fist­ed Philadel­phia
attor­ney who dug me and many for­mer camp staffers out of sev­er­al hor­ri­ble
legal scrapes, usu­al­ly for free. And of course Sy and his hus­band, Bob
Arch, now liv­ing in retire­ment in Lake Worth, Fla. Sy served that camp
from age six­teen until his retire­ment three decades lat­er (1950–1979). I’ve
nev­er met a more bril­liant, com­pas­sion­ate per­son. He was a slen­der,
hand­some man, a fast-mov­ing object who slipped around the camp­grounds
like a spir­it, in clean white ten­nis shoes, shorts, and golf shirt, bear­ing an
ever-present cig­a­rette between his fin­gers and the melody of some
spell­bind­ing opera in his head, for he loved that genre. He knew the name
of every camper and often the names of their par­ents as well. He was
decades ahead of his time. His staff looked like the Unit­ed Nations, long
before the word “diver­si­ty” echoed around Amer­i­ca. We were all poor­ly
paid and over­worked. But the lessons we learned from Sy left us rich. Many
of the for­mer staffers went on to excel in var­i­ous fields.
The kids loved him with an extra­or­di­nary inten­si­ty. Each night at
bed­time, he played a scratched record­ing of a bugle per­form­ing taps on the
camp’s ancient loud­speak­er, fol­lowed by a gen­tle “Good night boys and
girls.” And if you stood out­side fac­ing the rows of cab­ins, which were not
air-conditioned—he refused to let the trustees install air-con­di­tion­ing,
say­ing, “They need to feel the air. Let them live. They’re inside all year”—
you could almost hear the mur­murs of all nine­ty-one campers, the chil­dren
lying in their bunks, the words echo­ing up and down the row of dark cab­ins,
“Good night Uncle Sy.”
He served as a prin­ci­pal in the Philadel­phia school dis­trict dur­ing the
year, but was a sum­mer­time leg­end to the chil­dren of the camp. One of my
campers, Lam­ont Gar­land, now fifty-five, a born-and-raised North Philly
kid who nev­er allowed a life­long depen­den­cy on crutch­es brought on by
what was then called cere­bral pal­sy to stop him work­ing for the
Philadel­phia Elec­tric Com­pa­ny for twen­ty-five years before his retire­ment
in 2014, told me a sto­ry about Sy years ago that I nev­er for­got. Lam­ont,
who today lives in Colum­bia, S.C., told me this sto­ry when he was sev­en or
eight. He was attend­ing the Widen­er Memo­r­i­al School in Philadel­phia at the
time, which has admirably edu­cat­ed Philadelphia’s chil­dren with dis­abil­i­ties
for the last 116 years. We were sit­ting on the porch of one of the camp
cab­ins on a sum­mer after­noon and he said, out of the blue, “Uncle Sy came
to Widen­er once.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he work there?”
“No. He just showed up. We were in assem­bly in the audi­to­ri­um one
morn­ing, and he just walked in.”
“What hap­pened?”
“We gave him a stand­ing ova­tion.”
I leave it to you, dear read­er, to pic­ture that crowd­ed audi­to­ri­um more
than forty-five years ago, the con­glom­er­ate of crutch­es, wheel­chairs, and