The Night Counter (41 page)

WHILE FATIMA WAS
spellbound by Scheherazade, I will always be grateful for the enthusiasm and magic of my editor, Kate Kennedy, and the miracle of my wonderful agent, Jennifer Carlson. I am also indebted to the whole team at Shaye Areheart Books for their commitment to
The Night Counter
.

As I wrote this book, I was blessed with friends and family who offered invaluable feedback and support, particularly Cheryl Cain, Elizabeth Cullen, Natasha Ghoneim, Michelle Goodman, Barbara Hadden, Qevin Oji, Hisun Rim, Phaidra Speirs, Lan Tran, Mimi Younes, and Rachael Yunis. A huge shout-out to my Squaw Valley Girls—Myfanwy Collins, Emily Wiser, and Patricia Dunn—for plowing through the first draft and more. And Pat, thank you for the wisdom. I also thank Sangjin Lee for the heart he gave both me and the book.

I wish to acknowledge the research into Arab American history done by Greg Orfalea, Michael Suleiman, and Evelyn Shakir, all authors of fine books and journal articles on the topic. I thank attorney Nawar Shora at ADC for the legal fact-checking on the Patriot Act and other matters.

There are many translations of
The Arabian Nights;
my quotes were taken from Husain Haddaway’s
The Arabian Nights
(W. W. Norton, 1990).

This book began as a short story published in
MIZNA
. I was privileged to work on this novel at two of my favorite places on earth: Hedge-brook in Washington and the MacNamara Foundation in Maine. Finally, thank you PEN USA for all you do to open the world to writers who would otherwise be voiceless.

BORN IN CHICAGO
, Alia Yunis grew up in the Midwest and the Middle East, particularly the Twin Cities and Beirut during its civil war. She is the recipient of a PEN Emerging Voices Fellowship and has worked as a filmmaker and journalist in several countries. Her work has been published in a variety of anthologies and magazines. She splits her time between Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi, where she teaches at Zayed University.

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, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2009 by Alia Yunis

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Shaye Areheart Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com

Shaye Areheart Books with colophon is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request

eISBN: 978-0-307-45364-8

v3.0