Solo

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

For conversations and stories: Irina Aristarkhova, Nadeem Aslam, Rossitsa Draganova, Elena Filipovic, Graham Harwood, Robert Hutchinson, Claire Levy, Boris Katzunov, Nikoloz Kenchosvili, Christina Madjour, Vakhtang Maisaia, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Tim Parks, Lisl Ponger, Shveta Sarda, Alexis Schwarzenbach, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Tristram Stuart, Jeet Thayil, Matsuko Yokokoji, and the members of Riyaz.

Thanks to Valery Katzunov for unforgettable walks through Sofia, and to Alexander Kiossev, who, when I related the story I was about to write, said, You have just told me the life of my father. Thanks to Natalia Kajaia, who led me through the remarkable worlds of her Tbilisi. And to Paul Fennell, who explained how to make barium chloride.

Thanks to my agent, Toby Eady, for bewildering insights whose brilliance unfurled over time. To Laetitia Rutherford for getting me drunk and making everything clear. To Tilo Eckardt and Nicholas Pearson, who set me straight and reined me in.

In writing this novel I have enjoyed the immense privilege of a number of dedicated and exhilarating allies. All words fall short of the affections and insights offered by Jeebesh Bagchi, Sofia Blake, Marlene Nichols, Bhrigupati Singh, Prerna Singh and Phil Taffs.

Alas, one of these allies, Shakti Bhatt (1980–2007), did not live to see the end. These pages bear her trace, and my gratitude to her is, I suppose, eternal.

Monica Narula has lived in delicious complicity with this novel. She has inspired it, reasoned it and loved it — and dedicating it to her is like throwing a wave back into the sea.