She sighed sweetly, her breath like the movement of a brush through long hair. “Thank you, ji.”
After their call, Harit shut off his phone and turned on the stereo. Asha Bhosle’s trilling chirp enlarged the room. He remembered his sister, her beautiful smile, how she would sing along to these songs while moving her feet in a made-up dance. He remembered his mother, watching them from the crook of the kitchen doorway, all the while with her hands clasped calmly against her stomach. Harit smiled as tears slipped out of his eyes and onto the sari. At nine, the lights of the baseball diamond shut off, leaving him to enjoy the music in the dark.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, I must thank my wonderful editor Anna deVries for her incredibly perceptive work, which made this book stronger and richer. She has been a tireless champion of this story and its characters; I wish that every writer had the opportunity to work with her.
Thanks to the entire team at Picador: Stephen Morrison, Jonathan Galassi, Steve Rubin, Elizabeth Bruce, Kolt Beringer, Jeremy Pink, Lisa Goris, Shelly Perron, Steven Seighman, Darin Keesler, James Meader, Declan Taintor, Shannon Donnelly, and Molly Fessenden. Thank you, Henry Sene Yee, for the gorgeous cover.
Thanks to my agent, Maria Massie, for finding this book a perfect home.
Thank you, Owen Pallett, for your music and for the permission to use your lyrics as an epigraph.
I must thank the New York Foundation for the Arts, for its generous support of this project. I must also thank the Norman Mailer Writers’ Colony and my fellow residents, for their input as the novel originally took shape; thank you, Colum McCann, for leading those discussions.
Christine Pride acted as a personal and professional mentor throughout this process. The only thing that I value more than her editorial opinion is our friendship (and mutual worship of Shonda Rhimes).
Special thanks to Mala Bhattacharjee and Devi Pillai, for letting me interview them specifically about the character of Ranjana.
Thanks to other readers who gave me fantastic feedback along the way: Karyn Marcus, Ursula Cary, Jenny Jackson, Sarah Jenks-Daly, Adam Rathe, Karen Kosztolnyik, Kendra Harpster, Lea Beresford, and Helen Atsma. Thank you, Marissa Conrad, for letting me use your former Long Island City studio apartment as an occasional staycation writing retreat.
Thanks, as always, to the creative writing program at Princeton—the best damn place of all.
Thank you to all of my friends, for your support—especially Chris Henry and Ashwini Ramaswamy, for your endless passion and enthusiasm.
Thank you to my family: my mom, Lalita (who offered very useful comments on the penultimate draft); my father, Vinay; my brother Rajiv and his wife, Harsha; and my brother Vikas.
Most of all, much gratitude to John Maas, who has changed my life altogether. This book started in a sad place and ended in a hopeful one, and it is due to your kindness, humor, and generosity that such a thing was possible. I love you so much.