The City of Palaces (56 page)

This is the first of a projected quartet of novels—
The Children of Eve
, a reference to the
Salve Regina
—that will follow the characters and the themes introduced here into the 1920s. I first began telling myself this story and undertaking the research required to bring it to life in the mid-1990s. The earliest draft material was written around 2000. This first book took three years to finish. I want to thank the two invaluable readers who helped me in that process, my cherished friend and fellow novelist, Katherine V. Forrest, and Michael Strickland, a more recent but equally treasured friend. I also want to thank my friend and guide in Ciudad de México, Jonas Vanruesel, for helping me find the remnants of Don Porfirio's city in that megalopolis. I enthusiastically recommend Jonas's services to any traveler to México.

Over the past seventeen years, I have consulted hundreds of books, maps, photographs, videos, and other materials. On my website (
http://michaelnavawriter.com
) is a detailed bibliography for the interested reader, but I would be amiss if I did not acknowledge two key sources of research and inspiration: Michael Johns's brief but excellent
The City of Mexico in the Age of Díaz
and Alan Knight's magisterial two-volume history,
The Mexican Revolution
.

Finally, I acknowledge my spouse, George Herzog, with whom I learned the secrets of a happy marriage that I then used in telling the story of the marriage of Miguel and Alicia.