The Nobodies Album (32 page)

Acknowledgments

First thanks, as always, go to my extraordinary agent, Douglas Stewart, for his continuing enthusiasm, unwavering support, and flawless judgment. I am also very much indebted to William Thomas at Doubleday, for his willingness to believe that I knew what I was doing, and to my brilliant and insightful editor, Alison Callahan, whose excellent instincts, creativity, and flexibility have made this a better book than it would have been without her.

Many, many thanks to Liz Duvall, Seth Fishman, Coralie Hunter, Judy Jacoby, Marcy Posner, Nora Reichard, Alison Rich, Shari Smiley, and Adrienne Sparks, for their remarkable behind-the-scenes work.

I am grateful to several wonderful friends and colleagues, including Jennifer Allison, Susan Coll, Katharine Davis, E. J. Levy, Ann McLaughlin, Leslie Pietrzyk, Dana Scarton, Amy Stolls, Paula Whyman, and Mary Kay Zuravleff, for their early reading, suggestions, and support.

Thank you to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, where I spent a wonderful and extremely productive two weeks; D. P. Lyle, for his consultation about forensics; and Garrison Keillor’s
Writer’s Almanac
, which alerted me to some fascinating information about the Pied Piper of Hamelin at exactly the right moment.

Warm thanks to my family, including Doreen C. Parkhurst, M.D., William Parkhurst, Claire T. Carney, Molly Katz, David and Lynette Rosser, and Matthew and Margaret Rosser.

And finally, as always, endless love and gratitude to Evan, Henry, and Ellie, my three sunshines.

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

Copyright © 2010 by Carolyn Parkhurst

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

www.doubleday.com

DOUBLEDAY and the DD colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Parkhurst, Carolyn
The nobodies album: a novel/by Carolyn Parkhurst.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Women novelists—Fiction. 2. Mothers and sons—Fiction.
3. Psychological fiction. I. Title.
PS3616.A754N63 2010
813′.6—dc22
2009041886

eISBN: 978-0-385-53321-8

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