I WOULD LIKE to acknowledge Geist and The Globe and Mail, in which short excerpts of this book previously appeared. I want to thank my friend Brian Brett, who traveled this year with me; Ellen Seligman for her encouragement; Dinah Forbes, my Canadian editor, for her wise suggestions; Emily Bower, my American editor, for her sharp eye and ear; Kathryn Mulders, my agent; my children; my friends; and the myriad writers who contributed through their art to this book. Finally, this would not have been written without the endurance, love, and support of my wife, the poet Lorna Crozier: “There are no stories but that which held me in the night.”