by Jason Allen
There’s a quiet voice I have inside
that I can only hear when I sit beside
the ocean. This ocean where I hide
is all mine—this moonlight and this
midnight tide. Believe me when I say
that this is the only space I’ll miss
when I leave this place
forever.
—C. Halpern
* * *
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To Sarah Bedingfield, agent extraordinaire and all-around wonderful person—thank you for your belief in me and my work, and your endless warmth and support. I am the luckiest author there is to be teamed up with you.
To my brilliant editor, Liz Stein—thank you for going without sleep (after already being sleep-deprived with a six-month-old at home) when you first read my manuscript, and for championing my work so enthusiastically ever since. To Erika Imranyi—thank you for “devouring” my manuscript early on, and for the thousand things that you and Laura Brown and the world-class team at Park Row have done to bring this book to the world. To the team at Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency, thank you for backing me all the way. To Alice Lawson, thank you for envisioning this story as a film and for reaching out when it was still in development.
To the talented and supportive fiction authors who helped guide me along the way: Claire Davis, Jack Driscoll, John Vernon, Craig Lesley, Jaimee Wriston Colbert, Alexi Zentner, Ben Percy, Brady Udall, Pam Houston, Meg Wolitzer, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Susan Reese, Tony Wolk and Peter H. Fogtdal—thank you all so much. To the faculty and alums of the Pacific University MFA program and the PhD program at Binghamton University, and to the directors of those programs, Shelly Washburn and Maria Mazziotti Gillan—I’m eternally grateful to have connected with each and every one of you. To the lovely and talented Andrea Jurjevic´, to her sons, Kian O’Rourke and Saoirse O’Rourke; and to all my friends (sorry I can’t list you all but the list would be way too long—damn, I’m lucky)—thank you. Special thanks to Liam Costello and Kristi Murray Costello for providing a space to finish the final revisions of the novel, and to Barrett Bowlin and Ben Burgholzer for offering to be early readers. To the Hamptons kids from working-class families and broken homes, to those who survived and those who left us too soon; to all the Friends of Bill—thank you for reminding me that we never need to walk alone.
To my mother, Linda Allen, and my brother, Jesse Allen—thank you for loving me through all the ups and downs, and for always believing in me, even when I didn’t.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jason Allen grew up in a working-class home in the Hamptons, where he worked a variety of jobs for wealthy estate owners. He writes fiction, poetry and memoir, and is the author of the poetry collection A Meditation on Fire. He has an MFA from Pacific University and a PhD in literature and creative writing from Binghamton University, and currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where he teaches writing. The East End is his first novel.
ISBN-13: 9781488036583
The East End
Copyright © 2019 by Jason Allen
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