My parents, Rose and David, deserve an award for their unflagging support. I can’t think of another American family who would actively urge their son not to go back to school and complete his degree, but I’m glad they did. Sorry for all the bad words.

I will always owe Peter Joseph more than I can give: he saw this story and decided it deserved to be told. Peter and John Glynn guided me through three rigorous rounds of edits that made the book immeasurably stronger. Also, my thanks to Natalie Hallak, to our intrepid copyeditors and designers, and to everyone else at HarperCollins. Any errors that remain after all of their hard work are mine and mine alone.

On the West Coast, I have to thank Brooke Ehrlich for her enthusiasm and her savvy. Thanks to her I’ve met Drew, Andy and Kyle, all of whom have changed my life for the better.

Helen and Winnie deserve special love for putting up with my neuroses when I was at the end of drafts or shirking my responsibilities to tease out a nice sentence on a square of scratch paper. I’ll always remember our time fondly.

Carson and Brian were kind enough to offer me a stunning view of Lake Saratoga and the chance to escape the city while under the pressure of editorial deadlines. I still owe them a bottle of rosé.

I must thank the many footballers in Central Texas who were kind enough to answer my questions about the sport and their private lives. I withhold their names here because I remember very well the way guilt works by association in my old neck of the woods, and I would hate for any of these young men to be tainted for helping me a write a novel that is, to put it mildly, concerned about the world in which they live.

To the survivors whose stories informed characters like Deputy Grissom and the Old Boys, I’m sorry, and thank you. I hope things have gotten better. You know who you are.

And finally, to all the young people living anywhere there isn’t room for you, whose stories have yet to be heard, whose lives will never be normal: I see you. You’re loved.

ISBN-13: 9781488055775

The Bright Lands

Copyright © 2020 by John Fram

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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