NOW, THEN
This is a work of fiction (it’s odd that novels so often point out this fact: have you ever purchased a couch and found a notice, perhaps on the consumer safety label, informing you that “This is a very wide upholstered seat with a backrest and armrests”?). Events, names, characters, and places are all imaginary. Any resemblance to actual events, real persons, and mothers-in-law is purely coincidental. Not so for real persons mentioned in this book, whom I fictitiously enlisted in what I hope is the most respectful way possible as far as their public images are concerned.
I thank Prof. John Spanish for his advice on the subject of video security.
I also wish to thank Ernesto Franco, because he knows what a writer is and what he does; Paola Gallo, who knows how to point out a novel’s better qualities and shortcomings with the same tact and delicacy (and who wears boots with all the flair of an authentic cowgirl); and Maria Ida Cartoni, who has an unmatched talent for describing a book in a sentence or two at the most, and nailing it every time.
My special thanks to Dalia Oggero, who has been following me since I took my first literary steps, and who after all these years still lets me know whether I’m keeping up the pace or just scampering on all fours.
D. D. S.