The Headmaster's Wife(52)

This book is also for her mother, Tia, the true hero of that time of our lives. This book is also for my daughter Sarah, who just turned seven. She is a marvel.

It is also for the amazing nurses and doctors at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. I especially want to give a shout-out to the nurses: Someday, if there is any justice in this world, nurses will inherit the earth. I need to single out a few of you by name: Ali, Angela, Christy, Donna, and Eneroliza. You were like family to us, and I don’t know if we will cross paths again, but each of you is an amazing woman who gives so much love and labor to what you do.

I want to thank my agent, Marly Rusoff, without whom this book would not have been possible. She sets the standard for representation that every agent should aspire to.

My gratitude extends to the great Thomas Dunne, who saw in this book everything I had ever hoped a publisher could see in my work. I can’t thank you enough for your warm welcome and for bringing this novel to the world.

Likewise, I also want to thank my editor at Thomas Dunne Books, the talented Anne Brewer, whose insights made this book so much stronger. And thanks to Peter Wolverton, for his leadership and advocacy on behalf of my novel.

I also want to thank my early readers and hope I don’t miss any of you: Maura Greene, David Greene, Carolyn Greene, Meghan Westbrook, Miciah Bay Gault, Dana Routhier, Ann Wood, Alfred Donovan, and Alex Lehmann.

I would be remiss in not thanking all of my colleagues, trustees, staff, and faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Your belief in my leadership and your willingness to give me the space to be an artist as well as your president mean the world to me. We are building something special and lasting together, and I am forever grateful to each one of you.

Finally, I need to thank my amazing parents for all their support of me and my work and especially for sacrificing to send me to Suffield Academy as a teenager. As my brother, Richard, recently put it, “If you hadn’t gotten into all that trouble in public school this book would be called The Principal’s Wife, and who wants to read that?”