Die schönsten Buchwidmungen & Vorworte

The world is dark, and light is precious.
Come closer, dear reader.
You must trust me.
I am telling you a story.

Reading is a hobby, but for some of us, it's an escape from the difficulties we face. To all of you who escape into books, I want to thank you for escaping into this one.

To my husband, David Yoon, who showed me my heart.
And to my smart, beautiful daughter Penny, who made it bigger.

To the First Mother who Brings up a Happy Child.

To Mom,
Who took me to the library.

To caffeine and sugar, my companions through many a long night of writing.

It is very unnerving to be proven wrong, particularly when you are really right and the person who is really wrong is the one who is proving you wrong and proving himself, wrongly, right. Right?

What can I say about a man who knows how I think and still sleeps next to me with the lights off?

This is presented as a work of fiction and dedicated to nobody.

For Kate and Morgan
and for everyone
whose first love
was a hard love.

To all the English teachers, especially the great ones.

My first stepfather used to say that what I didn’t know would fill a book. Well, here it is.

I ask the indulgence of the children who may read this book for dedicating it to a grown-up. I have a serious reason: he is the best friend I have in the world. I have another reason: this grown-up understands everything, even books about children. I have a third reason: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs cheering up. If all these reasons are not enough, I will dedicate the book to the child from whom this grown-up grew. All grown-ups were once children– although few of them remember it. And so I correct my dedication:

To Leon Werth
When he was a little boy

Open your heart. Someone will come. Someone will come for you. But first you must open your heart.

There is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name.

People say you fall in love, but fall is such a sad word when you think about it. Falls are never good. You fall on the ground, you fall behind, you fall to your death. Whoever was the first person to say they fell in love must have already fallen out of it. Otherwise, they'd have called it something much better.

There's a difference between really loving someone and loving the idea of her