Maps for Lost Lovers

Acknowledgements

During the long eleven years that I spent working on this novel I was grateful for the assistance I received from the Arts Council of Great Britain, the Authors’ Foundation, and the Royal Literary Fund.

While writing Maps for Lost Lovers, a book into which elements from numerous myths and legends of the world have been woven, I had, quite fittingly, guardian angels and guiding spirits of my own: Nicholas Pearson, Richard Beswick, Esther Whitby, Alexandra Pringle — thank you.

I am grateful to Arif Rahman Chughtai — of the Chughtai Museum Trust in Lahore — for allowing me to use in this book the deer-and-cypress illustration from the dust-jacket of his father’s 1934 picture album Naqsh-e-Chughtai (Aivan-e-Ishaat Press, Lahore). The poem on page 277 is by Abid Tamimi. The verses on page 148 are by John Berger. The italicized passages on pages 77 and 78 are adapted from The Proudest Day by Anthony Read and David Fisher (Cape). The chapter named “You’ll Forget Love, Like Other Disasters” takes its title from an etching by Anwar Saeed, that named “How Many Hands Do I Need to Declare My Love to You?” from a painting by Bhupen Khakar.

For help and advice with the manuscript and for their kindness and generosity, I must also thank Sara Fisher, Kathy Anderson, Anjali Singh, Leyla Aker, Vrinda Condillac, Riaz Ahmed, Haneef Ramay, Salman Rashid, Martijn David, Ulrike Kloepfer and everyone at the Faber and Faber extended family: Walter Donohue, Stephen Page, Noel Murphy, Rachel Alexander, Charles Boyle, Helen Francis, Angus Cargill, Kate Burton, Will Atkinson. Thank you to Tim Pears for the decade-long friendship and care.

A special thanks to Jon Riley in London and Sonny Mehta in New York for believing in my book.

My deepest and most profoundly felt debt is to Victoria Hobbs: Dear Victoria, my own words fail me so I must reach for Ghalib—

Aisa kahan se laoon ke tujh sa kahen jise