“Why not, Charlie Cooper? It’s a new world. Who can tell us now what we can or cannot do?”

And she kisses him and she kisses me, and a chimney sweep standing next to us in his dirty suit cheers and offers us dusty applause.

The last word goes to me.

“Shall we?” I ask.

Together, hand in hand, we walk into the shadow of the cloud.

~ ~ ~

We thank the Smoke.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Like most texts purporting to be about the past, this is a book about the present. The past is to it both canvas and foil: a shadow thing that makes thinking about ourselves more interesting, less fettered to good sense. The novel may be political but it has no thesis: novel writing is interesting to me in so far as it is an open-ended process — a search, a jazz solo — rather than the skilful realisation of a pre-existing blueprint or the rehearsal of a subtly constructed argument. The best relationship of an author to his or her novel, I believe, is that of a reader; for to the reader belongs that greatest act of creation where stories are concerned, the transformation of words and sentences into tentative meaning, forever on the move.

This particular novel found me more than I searched for it. It grew out of a chance encounter with the Dickens quote that opens the book and reconnected me to a childhood feeling of being ambushed by narrative, a feeling both luxurious and urgent. For this I am deeply grateful; and grateful too to those people who encouraged me to surrender to this feeling wholesale (for it takes courage, sometimes, to indulge oneself). These are Simon Lipskar, my agent, who threatened me with violence and perdition were I not to pursue this project; my editors, Bill Thomas, Kirsty Dunseath, and Jennifer Lambert, whose insight and kindness enabled me to give the book its final shape; and James Boyd White and Andrew Herbert Merrills, who read early drafts and offered sage advice. My greatest thanks goes to my wife, Chantal, who read each chapter with me hovering in the background pacing to and fro asking, Are you finished yet? For your patience as much as your encouragement, my love, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DAN VYLETA is the son of Czech refugees who emigrated to Germany in the late 1960s. He holds a Ph.D. in history from King’s College, Cambridge. Vyleta is the author of three novels, Pavel & I, The Quiet Twin, which was short-listed for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and The Crooked Maid, which was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and won the J. I. Segal Award. An inveterate migrant, Vyleta has lived in Germany, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. He currently resides in Stratford-upon-Avon in England.

Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at harpercollins.ca.