Goodnight Nobody (35 page)

Acknowledgments

Thanks first and foremost to my hardworking, endlessly calm agent, Joanna Pulcini, who went far beyond the call of duty with every single sentence of this book (and also watched my daughter so I could do revisions). Joanna is the best any writer could hope for, and I'm lucky, once again, to have her as my agent and as my friend.

Thanks to Greer Hendricks, my wonderful editor, her associate editor Suzanne O'Neill, my publisher Judith Curr, Karen Mender, Carolyn Reidy, Justin Loeber, Kate Rogers, Angela Stamnes, and the whole team at Atria Books and Simon & Schuster for all of their hard work and good will.

I'm grateful to sopranos Kathleen Berger and Elizabeth Blancke-Biggs for a primer on the opera world, and to Elaine Douvas of Juilliard and the Metropolitan Opera for the lowdown on the oboe.

Ken Salikof and Nina Bjornsson were rigorous editors whose careful comments helped me along the way. Tiffany Yates was an eagle-eyed line editor.

Marcy Engelman, Dana Gidney, and Alicia Kalish take amazing care of me and my books, and I'm very lucky to work with them. Linda Michaels and Emily Gates make sure my novels see the world, and are excellent final readers.

Honi Werner graced me with yet another amazing cover, and Alita Friedman of PrettyUgly graciously permitted us to use Babo's visage on the back.

Jamie Seibert once again made my writing life possible by caring for my daughter while I wrote. Meghan Burnett was indefatigable with her assistance. Andrew Ayala and Peter Janssen gave us help when we needed it.

Thanks to all of my friends for their support while I was wrestling with this book, especially my fellow mommies, who are nothing like the ones described in this book: Susan Abrams Krevsky, Debbie Bilder, Alexa Hymowitz, Andrea Cipriani Mecchi, Carrie Coleman, Sharon Fenick and Alan Promer, Phil DiGennaro and Clare Epstein, Lisa Maslankowski and Robert DiCicco, and Craig and Elizabeth LaBan.

Thanks to my family, near and far, for love, support, and material: Ebbie Bonin, Warren Bonin and Todd Bonin, Renay Weiner, Alan and Linda Gurvitz, Joe Weiner, Jake Weiner (who's not just my brother, he's my film agent, too), April Blair, Olivia Grace Weiner, Molly Weiner, Frances Frumin Weiner, and Faye Frumin, my Nanna.

Finally, thanks to Adam and Lucy, for their love and patience.

Table of Contents

Cover

Also by Jennifer Weiner

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

Part One The Good Mother

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Part Two The Ghost Writer

Twenty-One

Twenty-Two

Twenty-Three

Twenty-Four

Twenty-Five

Twenty-Six

Twenty-Seven

Twenty-Eight

Twenty-Nine

Thirty

Thirty-One

Thirty-Two

Thirty-Three

Thirty-Four

Part Three Goodnight Nobody

Thirty-Five

Thirty-Six

Thirty-Seven

Thirty-Eight

Thirty-Nine

Forty

Forty-One

Permissions Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments