The Starboard Sea: A Novel (38 page)

Thank you to my family for their warm, open hearts. Big love to: Amy, Gerry and Joseph Heroux; Jared, Heather, Jasper and Dashiel Dermont; Johanna and Kathy McCarthy; and Catherine McCarthy and Stella Dermont.

A special blessing to Megan Bloomfield for the meaningful conversations she had with me about running before the wind.
I am honored to have studied with the dear departed Frank Conroy and Barry Hannah, whose early comments and encouragements kept me writing. For their invaluable lessons, I am indebted to Ted Weesner, Andre Dubus III, Robert Boswell, Edward Hirsch, Roxana Robinson, James Alan McPherson, Mark Doty, Antonya Nelson, and Marilynne Robinson.
I would like to thank the following individuals whose friendship and love continues to inspire: my fellow seafarers, Holiday Reinhorn, Andrew Porter, and Jonathan Blum; my matinée idol, Mark Jude Poirier; my great blessing, Amy Margolis; my dream girls, Jericho Brown and James Allen Hall; my dear poets, Michael Dumanis and Cate Marvin; my sweetness, Justin Quarry; my mosquito bite, Christopher Borg; my stars, Sabrina Orah Mark and Reginald McKnight; my ideal, ZZ Packer; my graces, Laurie and Paris Watel; my friends for always, Maribel Becker, Tanya Ceccarelli, and Victoria Allen; and the exquisite Connie Brothers.
And finally, I offer my deepest love and thanks to my parents, Joseph and Joanne Dermont, who gave me an ocean, a library, their love. I am so lucky to be your daughter.

For my parents

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

the starboard sea. Copyright © 2012 by Amber Dermont. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.stmartins.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data (TK)
ISBN 977312-642888
First Edition: February 2012
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

THE STARBOARD SEA

adcard (TK)