The Invention of Exile Read online

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I am grateful to several people who, combined, created a network of support, encouragement, generosity, advice, and friendship that helped me to write this book.

  Thank you to the Hunter College MFA program and to Susan Hertog, whose generosity allowed me to study at Hunter on a Hertog Fellowship. Special thanks to Peter Carey, Donna Masini, Colum McCann, and Tom Sleigh, whose courses served as inspiration and whose care and community buoyed me through a period of difficult loss. I am also grateful to all of my Hunter MFA colleagues. My deepest gratitude is reserved for Colum, my adviser at Hunter, who saw the potential for this novel early on.

  Thank you to Salman Rushdie, whose advice, example, and feedback on this novel challenged me and helped me to grow as a writer.

  Thank you to Francisco Goldman for daring me to always write closest to the emotional truth.

  I am also grateful to John Freeman for publishing an excerpt of this novel. Thank you to everyone else who helped in that publication (my first), including Patrick Ryan, Ellah Allfrey, and Michael Salu.

  Thank you to my wonderful agents, Caroline Michel and Rachel Mills of Peters, Fraser and Dunlop, and to everyone else at PFD; their enthusiasm for this novel is greatly appreciated.

  Thanks to my amazing editor Andrea Walker for her intelligent and insightful editorial suggestions, which helped me make this a stronger book. Special thanks also to my current editors, Virginia Smith and Ann Godoff, for their input and guidance and for providing me with continued support at The Penguin Press.

  I’d like to thank Elaina Ganim for her reading of an early draft of this novel. And thanks also to Corinna Barsan, who read some of the very first pages. Their friendship and encouragement were crucial during the intial stages of this project.

  For her friendship and perceptive observations and critiques, I’m deeply grateful to Maria Venegas.

  I reserve special thanks for Nicole Parisier, who read my early fiction, encouraged me to continue writing, and offered me a seat at her dinner table for several much-needed meals during the writing of this book.

  Thank you also to my former professors at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, Julie Malnig, who taught me the craft and joy of research, and Bella Mirabella, who has continued to take interest in, and support, my creative endeavors. I’m also grateful to Gallatin’s Lauren Kaminsky for her help in researching Russian history.

  In researching the Palmer Raids of 1919 and 1920, I’m indebted to the following history texts: Robert W. Dunn’s The Palmer Raids, Constantine M. Panunzio’s The Deportation Cases of 1919–1920, Kenneth D. Ackerman’s Young J. Edgar: Hoover, the Red Scare and the Assault on Civil Liberties, and Christopher M. Finan’s From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America.

  Thanks to Abby Gardner, who believed that this novel would see the light of day even when I wasn’t so sure, and to the entire Gardner family for offering me a home away from home when needed.

  To Alison Clarke, who once long ago made it possible for me to have a room of my own, thank you.

  For their friendship, time, shared laughter, and encouragement, thanks also to Wen-Yuan Betts, Sarah Eggers, Antonia Fattizzi, Dara Feivelson, Allison Lehr, Soledad Marambio, Meagen Marcy McCusker, and Brenna Sheehan.

  Thanks to D.B. for helping me to piece together my own narrative.

  Thanks also to my cousins on the Manko side of my family, Thomas Selleck, Laura Selleck, and Susan Selleck, and, of course, to my Aunt Ollie (Olga Selleck). I’d also like to acknowledge the Manko boys, Gregory, Danny, and David. We all stand on the shoulders of the man on whom the main character of this novel is based, and their encouragement and support was essential while writing this book. Special thanks to Laura, whose research helped locate important primary source materials.

  My deepest gratitude is reserved for my immediate family. Thank you to Paul and Kate Manko, and especially to Paul, my brother, who read several drafts of this novel and whose wonderful, keen instinct for story helped shape this book. To my grandmother, Louise Ciccone, your love and warmth fill my heart and these pages; thank you. To my aunt Diane Ciccone, thank you for your support and encouragement and for always being there when I need you. Love and thanks to my mother, Carol Manko, for her unwavering belief in this novel and in me and in all of my dreams, whether they required a pair of pointe shoes or a pen. I could not have done any of it without you. I’m also indebted to my father, Harold Manko, who passed away while I was writing this book, but who instilled in me a love of story and an appreciation for the arts, which led me first to dance and then to writing.

  Lastly, my greatest debt is owed to the man whose life story inspired this book, the late Austin Manko, who, I hope, will not be forgotten, and also to the late Julia Manko, who, with grace and strength, fought to keep her family together . . . across several borders.