A lot of time and research went into forming the characters, historical inserts, and settings. I’d like to thank Richard Price, Lorraine Adams, Paul Hammond, James Frey, John Hudson, Luke Russert, Jeff Nussbaum, John Arundel, Tony Powell, Bob Weiner, Ben Lasky, Bob Costa, Bill Eggers, Will Rahn, Alexander George, Jill Schary Robinson, Valerie Woods, Alex Haight, Rob Bouknight, Ben Polk, Daniel J. Jones, and Caitlin Dietze for sharing your knowledge and expertise, and sometimes granting me access to certain figures and otherwise impossible locations. You know who you are.
I’d like to thank the Gritz family, Randi and Scott, and the McDowell family, Brianne and Alex, for your love. And the Seidlitz family, Ashley, Liz, Uncle Pete, especially my godmother, Anne Seidlitz, for your wisdom and love and our many dinners together.
Thank you to my best girls, Claire Woolner, Leanne Tomar, Christine Nolan, Catherine Trifiletti, Katie Shannon, Drea Renee, Jackie Aitken, Anusha Salimi, and Zoe Persina for being one of my first readers.
I’d like to thank Robin Muller for your tutorial on Plato’s Allegory of the Cave all those years ago. Jacob Meszaros, Shirley Sacks, Albert Owens, and Roberta Villa for your early support and Elliott O’Donovan for photographing who I really am. I’d like to thank Luis and staff at Martin’s Tavern and Roberto and staff at Compass Coffee and Jose and staff at the Tabard Inn. Thank you Judy Hudson for lending me your gorgeous home, and thank you Allan Loeb for answering all questions about writing and “the biz,” and our decade-long friendship.
I’d like to thank my friends from MiQ: Melissa Kurstin, Chase Anderson, Emily Hohman, MacKenzie Kerrigan, Cedrick Yancey, Daniel Schwarz, and Will Harrington for your support.
I’d like to thank Melissa Randall for your faith in me, and my little bundle of joy, Ms. Zelda Fitzgerald, who always knows when I need a good walk. Lastly, I’d like to thank my parents, Gayle and Tom, for giving me a lifetime of stories to tell.…
The following authors have been some of my greatest teachers, and I’d like to thank them for their work: Robin DiAngelo: White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, Ibram X. Kendi: How to Be an Antiracist, Kathleen Menzie Lesko, Valerie Babb, and Carrol R. Gibbs: Black Georgetown Remembered: A History of Its Black Community from the Founding of “The Town of George” in 1751 to the Present Day, Toni Morrison: Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination, James Baldwin: Notes of a Native Son, Ta-Nehisi Coates: Between the World and Me, Arthur Herman: The Cave and the Light: Plato versus Aristotle and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization, Elijah Anderson: “The White Space,” from Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, and Howard Zehr: The Little Book of Restorative Justice. Thank you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
© TONY POWELL
CHRISTINA McDOWELL is the author of the critically acclaimed book After Perfect: A Daughter’s Memoir. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post; the New York Times; Los Angeles Times; Huff Post; the Guardian; O, The Oprah Magazine; People; LA Weekly; Marie Claire; USA Today; and the Village Voice, among other publications. Born and raised in Washington, DC, Christina is an advocate for restorative justice and criminal justice reform. She still lives in Washington, DC.
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ALSO BY CHRISTINA McDOWELL
After Perfect
Scout Press
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2021 by Christina McDowell
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Scout Press Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Scout Press hardcover edition May 2021
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Interior design by Jaime Putorti
Jacket design by Pete Garceau
Jacket illustrations by iStockphoto/Getty Images
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McDowell, Christina, author.
Title: The cave dwellers : a novel / Christina McDowell.
Description: First Scout Press hardcover edition. | New York : Scout Press, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020027812 (print) | LCCN 2020027813 (ebook) | ISBN 9781982132781 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781982132798 (paperback) | ISBN 9781982132804 (ebook)
Classification: LCC PS3613.C39484 C38 2021 (print) | LCC PS3613.C39484 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020027812
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020027813
ISBN 978-1-9821-3278-1
ISBN 978-1-9821-3280-4 (ebook)
