The Blind Man's Garden

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This is a work of fiction. The characters, events and organisations depicted in it are either the author’s creation or are used fictitiously. No resemblance is intended to any persons living or dead, to any organisations and events past or present.

My first debt is to Candia McWilliam, from whose perfect novel Debatable Land I have taken the words ‘Ardent Spirit’. The italicised lines in chapter 3 (see here) are from The Temptation to Exist by E. M. Cioran (The University of Chicago Press, 1968). The italicised passage in chapter 15 (see here) is from Salman Rushdie’s The Moor’s Last Sigh (Jonathan Cape, 1996). The letter quoted in chapter 17 (see here) is by Walt Whitman, from Walt Whitman’s Civil War, edited by Walter Lowenfels (Da Capo Press, 1960). The line that ends the first section in chapter 31 (see here) is the reverse of one to be found in Mitti ki Kaan by Afzal Ahmed Syed (Aaj Publications, Karachi, 2009). The original reads, ‘Love is not a distinguishing mark, something by which a dead body can be identified.’ (My italics.) The italicised words that end chapter 35 (see here) are by Simone Weil. The lines Mikal remembers in chapter 36 (see here) are by W. B. Yeats. A book I found helpful was The Interrogator’s War by Chris Mackey with Greg Miller (John Murray, 2004). Another was Beslan by Timothy Philips (Granta Books, 2008). An early study for chapter 16 appeared in Granta 116: Ten Years Later. I am grateful to John Freeman and Ellah Allfrey for their advice and kindness.

Thank you Salman Rashid, as always. Lewis Burns. Mrs Shamim Akram. Andrew Wylie, Sarah Chalfant and Charles Buchan. Stephen Page, Lee Brackstone and Angus Cargill in London, and Diana Coglianese and Sonny Mehta in New York.