In the “Acknowl­edge­ments” sec­tion, the author express­es grat­i­tude to numer­ous indi­vid­u­als who played sig­nif­i­cant roles in bring­ing the nov­el to life. The heart­felt trib­ute begins with the author’s UK and US edi­tors, Isabel Wall and John Free­man, who are praised for their metic­u­lous edit­ing and sup­port­ive pres­ence. The author rec­og­nizes lit­er­ary agent Jon­ny Geller for nur­tur­ing ideas and fos­ter­ing cre­ativ­i­ty. The ded­i­ca­tion to the Cur­tis Brown team, includ­ing Sophie Bak­er and Katie Har­ri­son, high­lights their dili­gent rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the author’s rights.

Fur­ther acknowl­edg­ments extend to Viking staff mem­bers such as Toye Oladin­ni and Saman­tha Fanaken, as well as the team at Knopf, show­cas­ing the col­lab­o­ra­tive effort behind the pub­lish­ing process. The author espe­cial­ly hon­ors Lisa Babalis for her kind­ness and sup­port, liken­ing her to a “Greek sis­ter.” Friend Stephen Bar­ber is com­mend­ed for his intel­lec­tu­al assis­tance.

More­over, the author express­es appre­ci­a­tion for Don­na Pop­py, a copy edi­tor, whose engage­ment in long dis­cus­sions about lan­guage has become a cher­ished con­nec­tion. Ellie Smith’s keen eye for detail is also acknowl­edged. The author artic­u­lates a pro­found respect for lit­er­a­ture as a sanc­tu­ary that pro­vides a sense of belong­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly for an immi­grant writ­ing in a sec­ond lan­guage.

Grat­i­tude is extend­ed to schol­ars like David Dam­rosch, whose kind­ness has been piv­otal, and Dr. Sebastien Rey, who assist­ed with inquiries relat­ed to ancient his­to­ry. The author prais­es Francesca Stavrakopoulou for her schol­ar­ly con­tri­bu­tions and Dr. Moud­hy Al-Rashid for her sup­port­ive respons­es. Acknowl­edg­ment is fur­ther giv­en to Mary Beard for ear­ly feed­back on the man­u­script, along­side Richard Oven­den, whose encour­age­ment was invalu­able dur­ing the nov­el­’s incep­tion.

The acknowl­edg­ment con­cludes with a heart­felt men­tion of Ley­la Fer­man and Mona Kizil­han for their strength and resilience. Last­ly, the author thanks fam­i­ly, includ­ing their moth­er and sib­lings, for inspir­ing love and sup­port through­out the cre­ative process. The sec­tion poignant­ly con­veys the idea that writ­ing is an endeav­or involv­ing both intel­lect and heart, cul­mi­nat­ing in a love song ded­i­cat­ed to rivers — those vibrant and those long for­got­ten.