Thank you to Katherine Hourigan, Diana Coglianese, Lydia Buechler, and Anthea Lingeman at Knopf. To Anna Jardine. To Ellen Levine and Steven Barclay. To Donya Peroff and Tulin Valeri. Thanks to Quintin for her research, and Griffin and Esta and Linda for their comments during the last stages of the book. To Sonny Mehta and Liz Calder, Louise Dennys and Olivier Cohen. And, once again, a special thank you to Ellen Seligman, my editor, at McClelland & Stewart in Toronto.
The lyrics Cooper sings to himself at the card table are from the song ‘Johnny Too Bad,’ originally recorded by The Slickers in 1970 and written by Derrick Crooks, Roy Beckford, Winston Bailey, and either Delroy Wilson or his brother Trevor Wilson, depending on the source. The line of song quoted on page 118 is by Tom Waits, another line by The Lovin’ Spoonful appears on page 46. The song ‘In Delaware, When I Was Younger’ is by Loudon Wain wright. The song ‘Um Favor’ (partially described on page 73) by Lupicinio Rodrigues in essence began this book.
The passage on page 273 about ‘the father at twilight’ appears in Le paradis perdu/Paradise Lost by Marc Trivier (Yves Gervaert Editeur, Bruxelles, 2001, © 2001 Marc Trivier), used by permission. Nietzsche’s original line is ‘Wir haben die Kunst, damit wir nicht an der Wahrheit zugrunde gehen.’ J. M. Coetzee’s slightly different translation of it in his speech when accepting the Jerusalem Prize led me to it. Two lines of a poem by Lisa Robertson from her book Rousseau’s Boat (Nomados, Vancouver, 2004), used by permission, appear on page 143. The comment about ‘archives being an utopia’ is also by her. The phrase ‘sweeping the translator’s house’ appears in Brenda Hillman’s book of poems Cascadia (Wesleyan University Press, 2001). The sentences from Alexandre Dumas’s The Black Tulip appear in the translation by Robin Buss (Penguin). The remark about Colette’s ‘amorously selected words’ on page 142 is by Francoise Gilot in her book Matisse and Picasso (Bantam, Doubleday, Dell Publishing Group, 1990). The conversation about the author of Sophie’s Choice possibly uses remarks by William Styron.
Thank you also to the following works: A Military Garden—a pamphlet written by Georges Truffaut, with the collaboration of Helen Colt, in 1919; Eugen Weber’s Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France 1870–1914 (Stanford University Press, 1976)—from which I drew some historical data on chariveries and veillées, as well as ‘sayings’; Miasmas to Molecules by Barry Wood (Columbia University Press, 1961); The Great Central Valley: California’s Heartland by Stephen Johnson, Gerald Haslan, and Robert Dawson (University of California Press, 1993); Rush for Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California by J. S. Holliday (University of California Press, 1999); Belles Saisons, the writing of Colette assembled by Robert Phelps (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1978); Blessings of the Wind by Tad Wise (Chronicle Books, 2002); The Tevis Cup by Marnye Langer (The Lyons Press, 2003); Road Hustler by Robert Prus and C. R. D. Sharper (Kaufman and Greenberg, 1979). Some descriptions of the First Gulf War that Dorn mentions during the game of Texas Hold ‘Em are drawn from Martyrs’ Day: Chronicle of a Small War by Michael Kelly (Random House, 2001); Kelly was killed during the Second Gulf War. Annie Dillard’s lines on page 141 appeared in The American Scholar, Spring 2004. The information about gotraskhalana comes from Wendy Doniger’s book The Bedtrick: Tales of Sex and Masquerade (University of Chicago Press, 2000).
By the Same Author
FICTION AND MEMOIR
Coming Through Slaughter (1976)
Running in the Family (1982)
In the Skin of a Lion (1987)
The English Patient (1992)
Anil’s Ghost (2000)
POETRY
The Dainty Monsters (1967)
The Man with Seven Toes (1969)
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (1970)
Rat Jelly (1973)
Elimination Dance (1976)
There’s a Trick with a Knife I’m Learning to Do (1979)
Secular Love (1984)
The Cinnamon Peeler (1991)
Handwriting (1998)
NON-FICTION
The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art
of Editing Film (2002)
First published in Great Britain 2007
Copyright © 2007 by Michael Ondaatje
This electronic edition published 2010 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
The right of Michael Ondaatje to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-4088-2107-7
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