Gillian Murray Kendall is an English Professor at Smith College where she teaches Shakespeare and 17th Century Poetry. She is married to biologist Robert Dorit and has two children, Sasha and Gabriel. There. Now do you know who I am?This may help. I have a size 7 shoe. I read books I love over and over and over. If you mention the word "kale," I will leave a restaurant. That's me.I'm also an editor of a collection of essays, *Shakespearean Power and Punishment.* Check out the cool cover on Amazon.*The Garden of Darkness* is more than I am; it comes from that nebulous place in the brain where ideas form. I grabbed some of those ideas, rearranged them, and wrote a post-apocalyptic novel that is deeply about the will to survive and the nature of friendship and, finally, about love.Happy reading.I hope you enjoy *The Garden of Darkness* and meeting Clare and Jem. And all the other characters.