To my agent Grace Heifetz: your guidance makes the things I find hardest a little easier and your unashamed enthusiasm gives me life. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thank you Jane Palfreyman for your excitement about, and commitment to, this novel and your spot-on editorial insights. It’s truly a dream to be published by you.

Ali Lavau, this novel is much stronger thanks to your meticulous, wholehearted editing. I’m so grateful for your care and attention.

Speaking of care and attention, thank you, Christa Munns, for yours. Indeed, the care and attention of everyone at Allen & Unwin has been exceptional. Thanks to every one of you.

Large parts of this novel were written at Writing NSW, an organisation that has been central to my writing life for well over a decade. Thank you to the staff, board and members for creating and maintaining such a nurturing and inclusive organisation. Special thanks to the students and mentees who’ve come into my life through Writing NSW’s programs. Working with you all on your novels-in-progress has enriched my own practice immeasurably.

Thank you Natasha Rai for giving excellent advice on an early draft and for your friendship. You, along with the rest of the brilliant women who (occasionally, messily) gather around that upstairs table at the Newtown Hotel, are helping to create a writing community I’m proud to be part of and a literary future that thrills me. I’m grateful for you all.

Thank you dear Weedy Writers. May we continue to drink rather than write and talk about everything except our work on many, many more nights to come.

Thank you to my aunties, none of whom are at all like Nic, except in that they are loved deeply by their niece.

Thank you to my nieces and nephews, none of whom are at all like Lena and Will, except in that they are loved deeply by their aunty.

Thank you to Jeff, the only home I’ve never wanted to run away from.

Finally, my unending gratitude to every single person who spoke to me about their own experiences with hoarding behaviour or their experience loving or living with someone who hoards. The stories you trusted me with will remain private, but the insights I gained from hearing them suffuse every page of this novel. It could not exist without you.