The Fallen (27 page)

Varone frowned. “Only a fool would think such a thing.”

“Perhaps, then, the old man said, we are all fools.”

Varone put his cup down on the table.

“Perhaps we are,” he said.

While the events and characters in this novel are wholly fictitious, the author owes a debt of thanks to a number of historical works, chief among them: Norman Lewis’s wartime diary
Naples ’44
, a staggering portrait of the city in the days and months after liberation and of the surreal situation into which the British Field Security Police were thrust; and Aubrey Menen’s
Four Days in Naples
, which gives a harrowing account of the
scugnizzi
uprising in the few fateful days before the Allies arrived in the city, and which also presents a touching portrait of Amadeo Maiuri, the real curator of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, and upon whom Augusto Parente was in no way based.

The author would also like to express his thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for their assistance in the writing of this book.

I am enormously grateful to a number of people who offered guidance and support during the writing of this book. Among them, Andrew Jefferson, who accompanied me to Naples and Sorrento, and who, map in hand, wandered with me through the ancient streets of Pompeii; thanks, also, to Georgina Kelly and John Lusher for the road trip to Derbyshire in search of the wartime Intelligence School at Matlock Spa. I am thankful also to Christine Pountney, Michael Winter, Chris Sommerfelt, and Ray Robertson, who offered advice and encouragement along the way. I would like to thank my two wonderful editors, Barbara Berson, who saw promise in me and whose generosity, persistence, and unflagging optimism kept me going, and Nicole Winstanley, whose enthusiasm and confidence saw this book to its fruition. I am also grateful to my agent, Anne McDermid, for her patience and sage counsel. As always, I wish to express my love and gratitude to my family: to my brothers and sisters, Scott, Shannon, Stephanie, Mark, and Christine, and to my parents, Josephine and Bradley, and to my aunts Marg and Marge and my uncle George. And lastly, for her love and conviction, and her tireless belief in me, I thank Alcmene Stathoukos; you make it all worthwhile.