Thanks to Hilary McMahon at Westwood Creative Artists, who was my first reader, and who responded to my semi-neurotic, exuberant e-mails with such kindness and compassion. Thanks also to Natasha Daneman and Chris Casuccio at Westwood, and to my editors, Lara Hinchberger at McClelland & Stewart, Alison Callahan at Doubleday, and Charlotte Greig at Picador, for understanding the book, loving the book, and helping to make it better.
Thank you to Dr. Anthony S. Joyce, director of the psychotherapy research and evaluation unit, Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, who with a couple of preliminary e-mails helped identify and solidify some of the psychiatric pathologies presented in this book.
Thanks to Dr. Leah Fowler (CF), who read an early draft of this book and whose comments reshaped its tone and texture; Elena Ray for her words on wounds; Cara Winsor Hehir for her consultation on Newfoundland; Wayne Silver for his advice and consultations, over much wine, on Arabic; Roberta for her help with the sweetness of Sevilla; Gail Sidonie Sobat and Geoff McMaster for their warm hospitality, sustaining laughter, and constant support; Dean Baltesson, my friend in life; Terence Harding for his steady encouragement; Laurie Greenwood, who has been such a lovely, warm wind of support; and Mark Kozub, Randall Edwards, Michael Gravel, Gordon McRae, and all my Raving Poets comrades in verse.
Thanks to Donya Peroff, whom I have never met, but whose edits on a previous manuscript taught me so much about writing, and to Marc Côté, who made that happen.
Thanks also to John and Anna, at Miette Hot Springs Resort (Anna, for your exquisite Greek coffee). For me, there is no better place on this planet to write.
To Cindy-Lou, who holds the kite string while I flitter about the sky. In your most frail gestures are things which enclose me, still.
And to Marie Mackenzie for making me pinkie swear, a lot.
While this is not a historical novel, much of what goes on in this book is based on what we know, or what we think we know, about Christopher Columbus.
Books and academic papers on Christopher Columbus, or with references to Columbus, that I read over the past five years and that may have influenced this novel include The Mysterious History of Columbus: An Exploration of the Man, the Myth, the Legacy, by John Noble Wilford; A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age, by William Manchester; and “The Hospital of Innocents: Humane Treatment of the Mentally Ill in Spain, 1409-1512,” by Emilio J. Dominguez, in the Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic. I also was probably influenced, to a small extent, by watching Ridley Scott’s movie 1492: Conquest of Paradise. References to saints all came from www.holyspiritinteractive.net.
I owe a debt of gratitude to The Tao of Steve for Father Paulo’s rant on women.