A Door in the Earth
Page 38
Also the documentary Motherland Afghanistan, by Sedika Mojadidi, with reporting by Mujib Mashal, Azam Ahmed, Carlotta Gall, Pamela Constable, C. J. Chivers, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Elizabeth Rubin, Sebastian Junger, and other journalists who have documented eighteen years of war; and the Instagram accounts of Andrew Quilty, Morteza Herati, Everyday Afghanistan, and others that illuminate the beauty of Afghanistan and the gravity of the stakes there.
Profound thanks to the following:
The staff of the New York Times Kabul bureau from 2001 through 2005, including Abdul Waheed Wafa, Ruhullah Khapalwak, Abdul Samad Jamshid, and the late but never forgotten Sultan M. Munadi, all of whom provided both friendship and an education.
My literary agent, Bill Clegg, for more than a decade of guidance, editorial acuity, and support; my editor, Ben George, for his intelligence, patience, doggedness, and good humor; my publisher, Reagan Arthur, for her enthusiasm; Pamela Marshall, production editor, for professional grace and great tolerance; Tracy Roe, who in being a physician as well as a copy editor saved me from both medical and grammatical errors in the text; Sabrina Callahan; Alyssa Persons; and all others at Little, Brown who helped publish this book.
For reading early (and sometimes late) drafts and making this book better in so many ways: Stefan Forbes, Nell Freudenberger, Eliza Griswold, Juliette Kayyem, and George Packer.
The MacDowell Colony, for three invaluable weeks in 2018; and the Ucross Foundation, for nine days in Wyoming early on.
And: Katherine Boo; Courtney Hodell; Scott Rudin and Eli Bush; Carlos Sirah; D. W. Gibson; my monthly women writers’ group; and Katherine Wolkoff.
My parents, Don and Marilyn Waldman; the Waldman, Ephraim, and Star families, especially Brenda Star; and Nola Hanson, who’s like family.
My husband, Alex Star, for reasons that could fill a book of their own, which he would no doubt brilliantly edit while also cooking, cleaning, caring for our children, and keeping me (relatively) sane. My children, Oliver and Theodora, aka Ollie and Theo, whose love of reading keeps me writing; for putting up with my disappearances, both mental and literal, to work; for suggestions about plot turns and cover designs (and to Theo for asking the crucial question: “What do the women want?”; and to Ollie, for catching, in the final hour, a word repetition that had eluded the closest readers and his mother). To all three for their curiosity, hilarity, music, goodness, and love.
Discover Your Next Great Read
Get sneak peeks, book recommendations, and news about your favorite authors.
Tap here to learn more.
About the Author
Amy Waldman’s first novel, The Submission, was a national bestseller, a PEN/Hemingway Award finalist, and the #1 Book of the Year for Entertainment Weekly and Esquire. She has received fellowships from the American Academy in Berlin, Ledig House for International Writers, the MacDowell Colony, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She was previously a reporter for the New York Times, where, as a bureau chief for South Asia, she covered Afghanistan. She lives in Brooklyn.
Also by Amy Waldman
The Submission