It’s an understatement to say it feels surreal that I wrote a book about a viral pandemic just as a viral pandemic swept the world. More than one person has half-jokingly called me Cassandra. When I started writing The End of Men in September 2018, it felt like the ultimate thought experiment. How far could I take my imagination? How would a global pandemic with an enormous death rate change the world? What would the world look like without men, or the majority of them? I wrote the first draft of the book in nine months, finishing with a burst of intense writing in June 2019. Now, as I edit the book for my publishers, I find myself testing my imaginary world against the real one. I gauge the distance between what I have written and what is happening. As a writer of speculative fiction, this is not something I ever expected.
Coronavirus doesn’t have a death rate as high as the virus I have imagined in my novel. Nonetheless, we are experiencing in real life the greatest pandemic of our lifetimes, which is more than I ever could have imagined in my wildest nightmares. The world I wrote about was meant to stay safely within the pages of my novel; it is now far more closely reflected by the world than I ever could have expected. I hope that by the time you’re reading this, there is a vaccine. I hope our healthcare systems survive and economies recover. I hope your loved ones are safe and that the world has returned to that wonderful, boring, nostalgic state I now crave: normality.
Christina Sweeney-Baird
April 12, 2020
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to my wonderful agent, Felicity Blunt. This book simply wouldn’t exist in the way it does without your insight, intelligence and creative ideas. Together we reshaped the manuscript you signed （which had more POVs than I knew what to do with） and turned it into something so much more. I’m so grateful for all the work you do to support my writing and help me build this remarkable new career with your wit and kindness.
Thanks to my brilliant UK editor, Carla, at Borough. From our first meeting I knew you completely understood this book and what I was trying to say. It’s a joy to work with you.
Thank you to Mark and Danielle at Putnam, and Amy at Doubleday, for your thoughtful guidance and enthusiasm about the book. My lovely US agent, Alexandra; the Curtis Brown rights team—Sarah and Jodi—and Luke for all your hard work. Thanks to Ann and the amazing publicity and marketing teams at HarperCollins.
I’ve never had any formal creative writing education but I learned to write from Marian Keyes and Julia Quinn. Anything I know about wit, characterization and plot I learned from their novels so a huge thank you to them.
I’m going off piste here but truly I couldn’t have written this without my MacBook （a present from my mum after months of tearful laptop drama）， 7Up Free, Teapigs green tea, peanut M&M’s and Magnum ice creams. For the record, this acknowledgments section is, alas, not sponsored. When writing late at night and throughout weekends, snacks just take on enormous importance.
Thank you to my best friends, whom I confided in when writing novels was something I did in secret with only hope and your encouragement to keep me going. Dolf, you’ve been by my side since we were nineteen working on our student newspaper. You’re the best friend a girl could wish for and your constant reassurance and support means the world to me. Sarah, thank God Tom had the good sense to fall in love with you （I mean, who wouldn’t?） and brought you into my life. I remember admitting over a glass of white wine in 2015 that I desperately wanted to be an author. You had total faith that I could do it and have never let me forget that. Tom, Will, Vicky, Simon, Claudia, Katie and Louise: thank you for being my people. Emily and Serina, the best work colleagues around, who shared my excitement and the surreal experience of signing with an agent and selling the book. Thank you to Daphne, who taught me the harp for a decade, and how to work hard to build a creative skill. You’ve had an extraordinary impact on my life, and to this day I still follow the lessons you taught me.
I’m very lucky to have the best family. Juliana and Kenny, who both listen to me talk about books an inordinate amount and make sure I never feel alone. Dad, your excitement about my writing always gives me such a boost. I hope I’ve made you proud. Papa, thank you for always believing in me and telling me I’m clever, even when I just felt very tired and overwhelmed from studying.