Knots

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This is a work of fiction, set against the background of events that took place in Mogadiscio. The characters in the novel and the incidents narrated in it are, however, products of my imagination. Any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

In writing Knots, I have incurred many debts, some with people whom I am, sadly, unable to acknowledge, because I no longer recall their names or have never known them, and others with acquaintances and friends I met in Somalia, whose names I have decided not to mention out of consideration for their safety. I owe immeasurable gratitude to all of these people for helping me get a grip on certain aspects of the civil war in that country. I have made judicious analyses of what I learned during my research trips to Mogadiscio, and I remain responsible for the spin I have put on what they told me.

In addition, I would like to give a nod of thanks to my very good Milanese friends Edoardo Lugarini, Daniela Bertocchi, and Chiara (my godchild) for lending me their second home in the hamlet of San Sebastiano in Piedmont; to Jean-Christophe Belliard; to my hosts at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, namely Michel Agier, Eloi Ficquet, and Maria Benedicta Basto; and to Clemens Zobel. Paris, in the spring, is very inspiring: Merci!

Among the many texts I have read, consulted, and borrowed from are Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio, in the translation of Nicolas J. Perella, who also wrote the introduction and notes (The Adventures of Pinocchio, University of California Press, 1986); Daniel McNeill’s The Face: A Guided Tour (Hamish Hamilton, 1998); Martha Roth’s Arousal: Bodies & Pleasures (Milkweed, 1998); Fatima Mernissi, The Veil and the Male Elite (Addison-Wesley, 1991); Peter Junge’s Arte da Africa: Obras-Primas do Museu Etnologico de Berlim (the catalogue for an exhibition held in Rio di Janeiro in 2003–2004); and David C. Lohff’s Cyclopedia of Dreams (Running Press, 2000); and Robert Green’s The 48 Laws of Power (Viking, 1998). My special gratitude to Ama Ata Aidoo for sending me, in electronic format, her The Eagle and the Chickens (Baobab Books, Harare, Zimbabwe); and to Christopher Gregorowski for his “retelling” of an African tale Fly, Eagle, Fly, illustrated by Nick Daly and with an introduction by Desmond Tutu (Tafelberg, 2000; the tale, in its written form, is attributed to James Kwegyir Aggrey, aka Aggrey of Africa). And finally, thanks to Our Dialogue, at http://www.ourdialogue.com/vl.htm.