This book is set on the North Shore of Vancouver, British Columbia. I grew up there, and I remember the landscape lovingly, but the story and characters are fictional, as is the municipality of Grouse Valley. However, I wanted to get the background information right. For help with the labour history of British Columbia, I would like to thank my good friend Jan O’Brien, who provided invaluable notes. I also owe a debt to another good friend, Rod Mickleburgh, a former labour reporter, along with his mother, the late Brita Mickleburgh, for our wide-ranging discussions of the time period.
The mountain and creek I describe are the traditional territory of the Squamish Nation, and I’m grateful to Squamish elder Sam George for reviewing the parts of the book involving the character Dan Lake, a fictional member of the nation. My thanks as well to the Squamish Nation’s Language and Cultural Affairs staff who introduced me to Mr. George. Huy Chexw. Of course, their help doesn’t represent any form of endorsement, and all mistakes remain mine.
Great thanks go to my editor Susan Renouf, whose incisive comments and impatience toward self-indulgence—that enemy of writers—have made this a better book. Susan has been my editor on four books and my friend for many years, and I wish her the most rewarding of retirements, when she can spend her time reading books she doesn’t have to read, in shockingly beautiful places. The help of others at ECW Press has been invaluable: David Caron, Jessica Albert, Claire Pokorchak, Emily Varsava, Victoria Cozza, Jen Albert, and cover designer Natalie Olsen.
I am grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for providing a grant that freed time to write this novel.