I am greatly indebted to the following people: Michael Sissons and all at PFD; Mari Evans and Alex Clarke at Michael Joseph; Donna Poppy and Larry Rostant; David Schlesinger, Betty Wong, Paul Holmes, Tom Kim, Mark Egan, Stephen Naru, Chad Ruble, Soren Larson and Bernd Debusmann at Reuters, as well as my co-workers, over the years, in the San Salvador, Mexico City, Miami and New York bureaux; Nicki Kennedy, Sam Edenborough and Tessa Girvan at ILA; and George Lucas at Inkwell Management in New York.
I am grateful to several people who read part or all of the early drafts of this story, though any inaccuracies or infelicities in the final version are of course my fault, not theirs: Pilar Prassas, Allison Tivnon, Manuela Badawy, Rasha Elass, Jonathan Lyons, Patricia Arancibia and Bettie Jo Collins.
For their hospitality at different stages of the book’s gestation, I am grateful to Daniel Soucy and staff at the Auberge Les Passants du Sans Soucy in Montreal, Randy St Louis and colleagues at Café Un Deux Trois in New York, and Gwen and Gary Fadenrecht in Mill City, Oregon.
For help in glimpsing some of the hidden nooks and crannies of New York, I am indebted to Glen Leiner, Suzanne Halpin, Maya Israel and Peter Dillon; Luz Montano and staff of the MTA and the New York Transit Museum; Janet Wells Greene and the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York; to Kevin Walsh, creator of the Forgotten New York website at http://www.forgotten-ny.com, and to Jim Naureckas’s New York Songlines website at http://www.nysonglines.com.
Thanks also to Father Michael Relyea of St Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, Nathan Brockman of Trinity Church Archives and Colleen Iverson of NYC Marble Cemetery.
On matters of fact: the magic cube featured in the fourth trial was discovered by Walter Trump and Christian Boyer in November 2003, though I have imagined it already known to previous ages. Diana Carulli painted the labyrinth Robert walks at a key point in the story, the artwork he views at Grand Central is the creation of Ellen Driscoll, and the digital clock he sees at Union Square is the work of Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel. I have slightly altered the actual dates of Hurricane Georges, and imagined a section of Central Park to be open when it was not.
I owe a special thank you for encouragement and advice to Toni Reinhold, Clive McKeef, Stacy Sullivan, Jason (Jay) Ross and Nicole Revere. For musical accompaniment, thank you to Raquy and the Cavemen, Ken Layne and the Corvids, Tsar, Matt Welch, Don Collins and Alien (Chris, Libby and Jeff), as well as to Steve Deptula of Liberty Heights Tap Room.
George Short, Keith Stafford, Dave Nicholson, François Raitberger, Anneliese Emmans-Dean, Leslie Crawford, Juliette Aiyana, Donald Coleman, Vincent Sherliker, Ian and Fiona Gausden, Janie Gabbett, Robert Lethbridge, Alison Sinclair, Joe Cremona, Stephen Boldy, Andrew Paxman, my brother Graham Langfield, Kristin Roberts, Barbara Brennan and Catherine Karas, among many others, have helped me find and follow my own path.
Last, but not least, I am grateful beyond words to my wife, Amy, who sent me to Montreal to start writing and whose deep insight and love – together with a sharp editor’s eye – allow me to make sense of it all.