ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to my first reader, Jérôme Tabet, and to our respective families—in particular, my mother, Jennifer, my siblings, and Catherine Tabet, Nicole Thibault, Raymonde Tabet, and Patrick Tabet—for their abiding encouragement. Also to my friends Ian and Ana Williams, Oliver and Ash Jeffery, Sigriður Kristinsdóttir and Hallgrímur Helgi Helgason, Valgerður Benediktsdóttir and Grímur Björnsson, Laufey Bjarnadóttir and Torfi Magnússon, Linda Flah, Claire Bertrand and her family, Valérie Leclerc and Arnaud Salembier, Jérémie Giles, Helen and Rick Zipes, Aurélia Chapelain and Didier Delgado, Agnès and Nicolas Ciaravola, Emilie and Jérôme Jude, Sonia Velli, Caroline Ravel, Yoann Milin and Marianne Cruciani, Guy and Nadine Landais, Martin Johnson and Kristina, and Leandro Jofré for the many hours of stimulating and multilingual conversation.

The essay “Talking Hands” would never have been possible without the hospitality and unstinting support of Margo Flah and Jean-Philippe Tabet. Immense thanks to Monica Elaine Campbell and Michel David.

For their precious contributions to this book, my gratitude also goes to Erin McKean; Les Murray and Margaret Connolly; Eszter Besenyei, Peter Weide, Ulrich Lins, Renato Corsetti, Ken Miner, and W. H. Jansen; Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Wangui wa Goro, Gichingiri Ndigirigi, and Evan Mwangi; Richard Ringler; Brian Stowell, Adrian Cain, and Paul Weatherall of Manx National Heritage; Sir Michael Edwards; David Bellos and Gilles Esposito-Farese; Erri De Luca and Andy Minch; Wayne A. Beach and Lana Rakow; and Naomi Susan Baron, Harry Collins, and Mark Bickhard.

Thank you to my English and American editors, Rowena Webb and Tracy Behar, and to their diligent teams, particularly Ian Straus, Pamela Marshall, and Kathryn Rogers—and also to Andrew Lownie, my agent.