by Nino Ricci
Acknowledgements
For their contributions to this book I am grateful to the following: Erika de Vasconcelos, for seeing the book clearly when I could not; Don Melady, Marian Botsford Fraser, Lee Robinson, and John Montesano, for their advice and support; Tania Charzewski, Peter Buck, and Rafy, for special services; Janet Turnbull Irving; Cal Morgan; and, especially, Ellen Seligman.
Nino Ricci’s first novel, Lives of the Saints, won international acclaim. In Canada it was the winner of the Governor Generali’s Literary Award for Fiction and the Smithbooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award and in England of the Betty Trask Award and the Winifred Holtby Prize. A longtime bestseller, it formed the first volume of a trilogy that was adapted as a miniseries starring Sophia Loren. Ricci is also the author of the bestsellers Testament, winner of the Trillium Book Award, and The Origin of Species, which earned him his second Governor General’s Award as well as the Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction. He lives in Toronto.
