I would like to thank Jim and Ruth, in whose red, womb-like shower this story took its shape, and Kathy, for going to China with her mother in 1987 for a few weeks and giving me the time to write the first draft. Also thanks to Stan Litch, for the writing time in his wonderful log cabin on the escarpment overlooking Georgian Bay at South Cape Chin.
Parts of a much earlier version of this book were read at a Conference of Mennonite(s) Writing in Canada at the University of Waterloo, May 10-13, 1990, and subsequently published in Acts of Concealment: Mennonite/s Writing in Canada, edited by Hildi Tiessen and Peter Hinchcliffe (University of Waterloo Press, 1992).
Most of the details of Indonesian life come from having worked there for two years, driving the roads, looking at the maps, reading newspapers and talking to farmers, veterinarians and various other Indonesian friends. I am also indebted to information from The Kris: Mystic Weapon of the Malay World, by Edward Frey (Oxford University Press, Singapore, Oxford, New York, 1988).
The passage by A.R. Wallace is from The Malay Archipelago: The Land of the Orang-Utan, and the Bird of Paradise, (MacMillan, London, 1869, page 273).
The “Blood and Henderson” referred to a couple of times in the book is the standard general text for veterinarians on medical problems of livestock. It is called, simply, Veterinary Medicine (Ballière Tindall, London). Given that he went through vet college in the 1970s, Ab would have been working with the 4th (1974) edition. Later editions have included other authors, especially Otto Radostits.
I’d like to thank Barbara Peters at Poisoned Pen Press for taking a chance on me.
Finally, a very special thanks to George Payerle for helping me to discover what the book knows.