My sincerest thanks to Angela Aki, dear friend and the first person ever to read this book; Bette Alexander and Jolanta Benal, perfectionists; Liuba Apostolova, who is made of starlight; Marty Asher, Jamie Byng, Anne Collins, Gerry Howard, Anya Serota, and Bill Thomas, the early believers; the Brattis, my second family; all the staff at Canongate, Doubleday, Janklow Nesbit, and Random House Canada; Dr. Linda Dietrick and Dr. Ann-Catherine Geuder, advisors on all matters Germanic; the editors (Anne, Gerry, and Anya) who, with elegant scalpels, helped debride the dead parts; Dr. Kathy J. Edwards, who patiently answered all my burning questions; John Fontana, who makes me look good; Helen Hayward, killer teacher; my international proofreaders Kyoko Aoyama, Yoichi Takagi, and Miko Yamanouchi (Japanese), Ъa Matthнasdуttir (Icelandic), and Giuseppe Strazzeri (Italian); Eric Simonoff, the novel’s greatest champion; Dorothy Vincent, who took the book around the world; the publishing assistants essential to getting things done, particularly Katie Halleron, Eadie Klemm, and Alexa Von Hirschberg; Joe Burgess, Kirby Drynan, Liz Ericksson, Kevin and Alex Hnatiuk, Alison and Helen Ritchie, and Paige Wilson, friends with feedback; my family, nuclear and extended, for their support and love; and Harley and Fjola, for everything.
To the following resources, I am particularly indebted: Medieval Germany: An Encyclopedia, edited by John M. Jeep; The Mystics of Engelthal: Writings from a Medieval Monastery, by Leonard P. Hindsley; Henry Suso: The Exemplar, with Two Sermons, translated, edited, and introduced by Frank Tobin; Light, Life and Love: Selections from the German Mystics of the Middle Ages, edited by W. R. Inge; The Inferno, by Dante Alighieri, translated by Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander; The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso, by Dante Alighieri, translated by John Ciardi; Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, Consumers, and Providers (fourth edition), by E. Fuller Torrey, M.D.; Rising from the Flames: The Experience of the Severely Burned, by Albert Howard Carter III, Ph.D., and Jane Arbuckle Petro, M.D.; Severe Burns: A Family Guide to Medical and Emotional Recovery, by Andrew M. Munster, M.D., and the Staff of the Baltimore Regional Burn Center; Holy Terrors: Gargoyles on Medieval Buildings, by Janetta Rebold Benton (in which is printed a version of the legend of the dragon La Gargouille); the website Viking Answer Lady; and the King James Version of the Holy Bible.