My thanks to Tara Weikum and Sarah Homer for really excellent edits. I was sure I had delivered them a masterpiece, but they delicately showed me how to lift this story to new heights. And sorry that it took me so long to figure out where to properly use an em dash.
Thanks to Guy O’Keeffe who helped me early on with information on Peggy’s poisoning and also organ “donations.” Wanda Whiteley helped me to find a voice for Jessie and encouraged my first foray into the young adult genre. Holly Valance made sure my Serbian translations didn’t make a mess of my entire plot.
It feels like the right moment to say thank you to the myriad of friends/family (you know who you are) who have been part of our fun and insane forays into storytelling—for showing so much support, buying so many books, attending every screening, throwing launches, and generally making me feel like a genius. What a gift that is.
In the end, it is my readers who make The Athena Protocol come to life by picking up this book and interacting with it. I appreciate you taking the time with this story, and thanks also to the thousands of amazing, passionate fans of my past books and films, those who’ve championed me and stuck with me through every story I’ve cared to tell. Writing is a privilege, but it’s also a lonely business because you never really know if anyone will connect with what you want to say. You all have made that so much easier for me in the past fifteen years. Thank you.
About the Author
Photo by Marte L Rekaa
SHAMIM SARIF is a novelist, screenwriter, and director.
Her debut novel, The World Unseen, won a Betty Trask Award and the Pendleton May First Novel Award. She is also the author of Despite the Falling Snow and I Can’t Think Straight. She has adapted and directed award-winning films of all three of these novels.
Shamim lives in London with her wife, Hanan, and their two sons. The Athena Protocol is her first novel for teens.
Visit her online at www.shamimsarif.com.
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The Athena Protocol
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Copyright
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
THE ATHENA PROTOCOL Copyright © 2019 by Shamim Sarif. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Cover art and design © 2019 by James T. Egan of Bookfly Design
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019939330
Digital Edition OCTOBER 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-284962-5
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-284960-1
19 20 21 22 23 PC/LSCH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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