The Train of Small Mercies (29 page)
Read The Train of Small Mercies Online
Authors: David Rowell
“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself,” he told a group of young people in South Africa on their Day of Affirmation in 1966, “but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Bill Routhier, Beth Castrodale, and Audrey Schulman were extraordinarily generous and insightful writing group companions for many years.
Melissa Bank offered me invaluable comments on this novelâand true and timely encouragement throughout. Wells Tower weighed in at an essential time, and Marianne Gingher provided a spark that I very much needed. Ron Carlson imparted a guiding and instrumental lesson early on.
At
The Washington Post,
Len Downie and Patricia O'Shea selected me for a fellowship at Duke University, where some of this novel was written. Debra Leithauser offered me the gift of time.
The Washington Post,
Len Downie and Patricia O'Shea selected me for a fellowship at Duke University, where some of this novel was written. Debra Leithauser offered me the gift of time.
At Putnam, Diana Lulek provided always cheerful and expedient assistance. At the Friedrich Agency, Lucy Carson gave me a steady and reassuring line of counsel on all matters throughout. I thank my agent, Molly Friedrich, for her fierce belief in this novel and my editor, Marysue Rucci, for her remarkable care with it. To them I'm profoundly grateful.
I thank Max Steele (1922â2005) for putting me on the path in the first place.
I'm indebted to Jack and Martha Fleer for their ongoing support; my brother, John, for his enthusiasm; my mother, Ann Rowell, for her unwavering faith; and my sons, Griffin and Anderson, for their patience. And to my wife, Katherine, for all the days and nights.
My father, Glenn Rowell, kept a house full of books but didn't get to include this one. Still, he loved everything the author ever produced.
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