When I was a kid, my mom took me to every play at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. My first was Twelfth Night when I was five. The spectacle got me—actors running on stage from all directions with brandished swords and swirling banners. Soon, though, it was the stories: magnificent tales of families separated by the sea and reunited; of evil, usurping dukes; of witches, star-crossed lovers, and bold comic characters with names like Sir Toby Belch and Justice Shallow. I was hooked by worlds of wonder in which the confusions of my young life found voice.
I couldn’t get enough. When I wasn’t seeing the plays, I was reading the stories as told by Classics Illustrated Comics and Charles and Mary Lamb. In my teens, I did summer jobs at the festival: as an usher, a dresser, and finally as an acting apprentice. I remember barreling across Stratford’s thrust stage as an Albany soldier, cowering before Lear’s rage as a Goneril servant, and actually delivering a speech as one of Duke Senior’s banished lords in the Forest of Arden.
Family and friends; secrets and identity; transformation and reconciliation—these are the themes I’ve held close to my heart since I was a child and that find expression in this tale. So, above all else, I want to thank my mother, the most courageous, inspiring person I know, who introduced me to the magic and power of words and the way in which Story can give shape and meaning to life’s chaos.
I also want to thank Daniel Legault, Louise and Christine Baldacchino, Sebastien Amenta, Mark Citro, and David Stone, who read and critiqued the manuscript throughout its many drafts.
Last but not least, I’d like to thank everyone at HarperCollins for the tussles that wrestled this book into being—especially Lynne Missen, Sarah Sevier, Catherine Onder, Susan Rich, Kathryn Hinds, Tyler Infinger, Jessica Berg, Alison Klapthor, and Hadley Dyer. And, of course, Beth Fleisher, Joe Monti, and Barry Goldblatt at Barry Goldblatt Literary.
—Allan Stratton