One Thing Stolen (26 page)

Thank you to the entire Chronicle team—Ginee Seo, Lara Starr, Sally Kim, Stephanie Wong, Jaime Wong, Anna-Lisa Sandstrum, Taylor Norman, Johan Almqvist, Jenifer Savasta, Joya Anthony, Claire Fletcher, and Marie Oishi. I am so lucky to have found myself with all of you, and I feel blessed, daily, to be in the company of such a bold, imaginative, and generous team. Deep thanks to Kristine Brogno, who read the novel with care, slipped inside its physical and psychological landscape, and created a cover of rare ingenuity.

And thank you, finally and most especially, to Tamra Tuller, who waited patiently for this book to become the book it needed to be. There were detours, heaven knows. There were doubts—plenty. You were always there, by the side of the road, holding your lantern for me.

One Thing Stolen
was born of Beth Kephart’s obsession with birds, nests, rivers, and floods, as well as her deep curiosity about the mysteries of the human mind. It was in Florence, Italy, among winding streets and fearless artisans, that she learned the truth about the devastating flood of 1966, met a few of the Mud Angels who helped restore the city more than fifty years ago, and began to follow the trail of a story about tragedy and hope.

Beth
is the award-winning author of nineteen books for readers of all ages, including
You Are My Only, Small Damages, Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir
, and
Going Over
. She teaches creative nonfiction at the University of Pennsylvania, where a large portion of this novel is set.