I owe a deal of thanks to the helpful and knowledgeable librarians at the San Francisco Public Library’s History Centre. To say that I was greeted with courtesy and enthusiasm is an understatement. Thanks also to gun crime writer Tom Pitts, who showed me the streets and dive bars of his city—it all filtered through. I’d also like to thank the staff at the City Lights Bookstore, located in once Sydney-town, for their advice and historical acumen. Thanks too to the staff at the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum.
I’d like to acknowledge the generosity of The Coves’ first readers, who gave it the once over when it was a very rough draft—Brooke Davis, Sean Gorman, Deborah Robertson, Ian Reid and Paul Daley, along with my brother, sister and mother—Peter, Kerri and Rosemary. Thanks to historians Keir Reeves, Ben Mountford and Tim Causer for their advice and sharing. Thanks to Loretta Martella at Artsource for keeping my writing studio going—others might see a bare room but to me it’s a sanctuary. A special thanks to the team at Fremantle Press, and especially my terrific publisher and editor, Georgia Richter, for her imagining what the early draft might become, and her patience and labour that brought it there.
Finally, thanks to my wife, Bella, for everything. If I’m remotely near the straight and narrow, it’s because of you. This novel started when my eight-year-old son came to me and asked me to write a story about him. When I said that I couldn’t do that, he countered slyly with ‘Then can you write a book about a boy like me?’ This book is that, Luka Fergus, and I hope I’ve done the precious subject justice.