This book would never have got off the ground – and I would certainly have never written anything in my life – had it not been for Korean films. They inspired me and sparked my imagination so much that I decided to set my own story in Korea. My dear friend Rossana had spoken to me at length about Japanese films, but I found myself falling in love with the Korean ones, and it was love at first sight. Since then the fund manager of the Templeton Global Bond and I have shared the same obsession with Korea (and if you have the opportunity or inclination to check the average percentage of Korean investment in SICAV bonds, you’ll understand what I mean).
I’d like to thank all those who stumbled upon the embryonic drafts of what is now a more finished version of the novel in online stores, and reviewed it so kindly. It all began with this book.
I’d like take this opportunity to thank without exception all of the team at Newton, who have devoted so much energy and effort in recent months to keeping up with me. Since writing is a beloved hobby to which I don’t have much time to dedicate, they had to fight tooth and nail to get ten minutes inside my crazy ‘average day’, and I am very grateful to all of them for not having told me where to get off.
I would like to thank Silvana Fogola for her valuable and careful proof reading.
And I would like to thank my husband, who not only loved this story from the beginning (it remains his favourite novel of the ones I have written so far), but also didn’t strangle me for filling the house – during the final stages of revising the text – with numerous maps of the city and underground network of Seoul. And if he ever does decide to take me – once the North Korean nuclear threat has passed, obviously – I will be eternally grateful.