In the aftermath, DeWitt wanted nothing more than to be left alone to work. She moved to Berlin, hoping to seclude herself and write. One day, she came across an email she’d never replied to, from a young tabloid journalist named Ilya Gridneff. They had met in 2003 at a London bar, where they fell into conversation after he teased her about a German philosophy book she was reading. She scribbled her email address on a receipt and he later sent her a note, but not long after, her life imploded.