A Message From Mark Mills

A Happy New Year from "across the pond" to all of you on Long Island.

It is a great honor for me that Amagansett has been selected for Long Island Reads 2006. I never imagined such a thing happening. In fact, when the seed of an idea first lodged itself in my head (nine years ago now) I never for a moment thought that it would grow into a novel. I had not written a book before, and I felt neither equipped nor entitled to do so. In the end, though, I had little choice in the matter. That is how it feels, even now.

Some places speak to us in a language we don't fully understand. The South Fork of Long Island is one such place for me. I can't say why exactly, but I have always felt good there: calm, contented, somehow whole. I suspect it has something to do with the geography of the area, its isolation, the omnipresent ocean, the humbling power of nature. Every time I visited, a bit more of the South Fork seeped into my marrow; and every time I returned to England I left a bit more of myself behind. It was this personal relationship with the area that finally compelled me to have a stab at writing out my story. It took more than two years and four lengthy "research trips" - a phrase which invariably drew a wry smile from my wife!

Amagansett is a crime novel in that there is a murder and an investigation, but it is also a study of an old community in transition - the sort of uneasy transition many such communities underwent in the post-War years. People seem to get quite different things from the book, and I hope that you all find something in it, however small, to take away with you.