Beyond the Ties of Blood (52 page)

Curtis also introduced me to my agent, Lisa Grubka, who from the beginning saw what my novel could become. Her sharp and well-focused feedback, unflagging enthusiasm, and ongoing encouragement made it possible for me to continue through several revisions. Lisa's foresight and deep insight were also responsible for matching me up with Jessica Case, my editor at Pegasus Books, whose wise line edits and great sense of humor have been a real gift. Thanks are also due to the foreign rights team at Foundry, and everyone at Pegasus for their faith in this novel.

Family and friends, too, have been crucial to my ability to transform earlier drafts into a novel. My husband, Steve J. Stern, an expert on memory in Chile, read various versions, not only with enthusiastic and loving support, but also with the sharp eye of the historian. My sister, Ignacia Schweda, and her husband, Robert Schweda, provided astute and honest feedback from the point of view of the lay reader. My parents Ignacia and Richard Mallon shared their deep and multigenerational experience with Chilean culture. My sons Ramón and Isaiah Stern have supported me throughout, and Isaiah read an earlier draft and gave me welcome comments. I am also extremely lucky to count as friends many enthusiastic readers who provided support and help along the way, including Ana Mariella Bacigalupo, Marjorie Becker, Sue Elias, Nan Enstad, Linda Newman, and Lou Roberts. I am also deeply indebted to my Chilean family, to the Reuque Paillalef family, and to the families of the Mapuche community of Nicolás Ailío for welcoming me into their homes and hearts during my many trips back and forth between Chile and the United States since the mid-1990s.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

copyright © 2012 by Florencia Mallon

interior design by Maria Fernandez

Pegasus Books LLC

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New York, NY 10004

This 2012 edition distributed by Open Road Integrated Media

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