Thank you to my agent, Michelle Brower, who saw this book in exactly the way I hoped it would be seen, even beyond what was initially present on the page, and who championed it wholeheartedly. Thank you also to Danya Kukafka, Chelsey Heller, and everyone else at Aevitas Creative Management who has helped bring this book into the world.

Thank you to Jonathan Lee, whose incredibly perceptive, smart, and thorough edits elevated this novel beyond measure. To Carla Bruce-Eddings, for being such a fierce and genuine advocate. To Nicole Caputo, for designing the absolute perfect cover. To Yuka Igarashi, for editing an excerpt of what became this book for Granta. To Katie Boland, Wah-Ming Chang, and the entire Catapult team, thank you.

To the NWP at Iowa, thank you for the time and space and support to write, and for giving me a teaching fellowship so that I remained at least somewhat social and sane in the process. Thank you to my advisers and teachers, Robin Hemley, Patricia Foster, Honor Moore, and Geoff Dyer. Thank you also to Christopher Merrill, Natasa Durovicova, and Hugh Ferrer at the International Writing Program for their support, and to Daniel Khalastchi at the Magid Center for Undergraduate Writing. Thank you to my teachers at Columbia as well, Anya Schiffrin, Claudia Dreifus, Peter Godwin, and to Susie Lebryk-Chao.

Thank you to Kima Jones and Jack Jones Literary Arts for those precious two weeks surrounded by inspiring women and peaceful mountains. I am awed by what you’ve created and so grateful that it exists.

Thank you to my NWP classmates, my people: Jen Percy, Rachel Yoder, Ariel Lewiton, Inara Verzemnieks, Laurel Fantauzzo, Mieke Eerkens, Deborah Taffa, Matt Siegel, Kristen Radtke, Lucas Mann, Lina Maria Ferreira Cabena-Vanegas, Alea Adigweme, Sandy Allen, Olivia Dunn, Amy Bernhard, Catina Bacote, Blair Braverman, Quince Mountain, Helen Rubinstein, and Gemma de Choisy. To Gallywagon Leach, for, among other things, providing me a safe and loving home in Iowa. And to my NYC writing group: Meredith Talusan, Lilly Dancyger, Nina St. Pierre, and the rest of Ronny’s Children—thank you.