The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry: A Novel (20 page)

acknowledgments

There aren’t unicorns, there is no Alice Island, and A. J. Fikry’s tastes are not always my own.

Lambiase and the first Ms. Fikry speak variations on the phrase, “A town isn’t a town without a bookstore.” Surely, they both must have read
American Gods
by Neil Gaiman.

Kathy Pories edited this book in such a generous and precise way that she somehow managed to improve my whole life. This is the power of a good editor. Thank you to all at Algonquin, especially Craig Popelars, Emma Boyer, Anne Winslow, Brunson Hoole, Debra Linn, Lauren Moseley, Elisabeth Scharlatt, Ina Stern, and Jude Grant.

Douglas Stewart, my agent, is a fine poker player and occasionally a magician. These skills were put to use on
A. J. Fikry
’s behalf. Thanks also to his colleagues Madeleine Clark, Kirsten Hartz, and particularly Szilvia Molnar. For a variety of reasons, I am also indebted to Clare Smith, Tamsyn Berryman, Jean Feiwel, Stuart Gelwarg, Angus Killick, Kim Highland, Anjali Singh, Carolyn Mackler, and Rich Green.

My dad, Richard Zevin, bought me my first book with chapters,
Little House in the Big Woods,
and when I liked that one, made a happy gift of the next thousand or so. On her lunch hours from work, my mom, AeRan Zevin, used to drive me to the bookstore so I could get my favorite authors on their first day of release. My grandparents Adele and Meyer Sussman gave me books practically every time they saw me. My eleventh-grade English teacher, Judith Beiner, introduced me to contemporary literary fiction when I was at a particularly impressionable age. Hans Canosa has been my first and most patient reader for the better part of two decades. Janine O’Malley, Lauren Wein, and Jonathan Burnham were the editors on the seven books I wrote before this one. In combination, all these acts and people
might hold the formula for growing a writer.

As a sales rep for Farrar Straus Giroux, the gregarious Mark Gates, who is no longer with us, drove me around Chicagoland on my 2007 book tour. I suspect I began to conceive of this book back then. Several years later, Vanessa Cronin graciously answered my questions about sales calls and the timing of lists. Mistakes should be considered my own, of course.

I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the many booksellers, author escorts, librarians, teachers, writers, book festival volunteers, and sundry publishing folk who have hosted and chatted with me in the ten years since I sold my first novel. These conversations are the foundation on which Island Books was built.

Finally, liberties were taken with regard to the depiction of the Green Animals Topiary Garden in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. What is true: the garden is not open in winter, but in the summer, you will indeed find a unicorn there.

Published by

Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

Post Office Box 2225

Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225

a division of

Workman Publishing

225 Varick Street

New York, New York 10014

© 2014 by Gabrielle Zevin.

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

Design by Anne Winslow.

This is a work of fiction. While, as in all fiction, the literary perceptions and insights are based on experience, all names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

eISBN 978-1-61620-394-8