Almost inestimable gratitude is owed to my mentor, Mary Gaitskill, who has remained an indefatigable friend, and who read and critiqued several drafts of this novel.
Mary also introduced me to my brilliant and life-changing agent, Jin Auh, of the Wylie Agency. I also thank Jin’s wonderful assistant, Jessica Friedman, and indeed all the Wylie staff.
I thank my sweet son, Tobias, who taught me much about the two boys at the center of this story, and who put up with a distracted dad far too often. (And I assure you, Toby, that the promised novel about English setters who battle in intergalactic space is coming—someday.)
Above all, I thank my wife, the poet and translator Annmarie Drury. She lifted me up from despair again and again, gave up so much, and inspired me to follow these animals and ghosts out from their cages and into the starry night.
about the author
BILL BROUN was born in Los Angeles to an English father and an American mother. He was educated at University College London and Miami University (Ohio). He also holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Houston. He is associate professor of English at East Stroudsburg University.
While writing fiction in his spare time, Broun spent many years as a news reporter, music journalist, and news editor, including long stints as editor in chief at several weekly newspapers in Texas. In London, he was employed as a copyeditor at a host of British newspapers and magazines, with staff positions at the Guardian and Architects’ Journal. His own writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Times (London), the Times Literary Supplement, and more, as well as specialty publications such as the Architects’ Journal and Publishers Weekly. He was appointed a resident fellow at Yale University in 2002, where he lectured in fiction writing, advanced composition, and journalism for four years. His short fiction, which often explores the lives of the urban underclass and “working poor,” has appeared in journals such as the Indiana Review, the Kenyon Review, and Open City.
Broun lives in Hellertown, Pennsylvania, and Night of the Animals is his first novel.
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