The Undertaking (23 page)

‘If you have any to spare, yes, that would be very kind.’

They returned to the kitchen and she crouched beside her son, to help him with his homework. Faber looked away, staring out the kitchen window at the fading afternoon, at the grocer stacking wooden crates. He saw Mr Spinell come down the hall, leaning heavily on a stick. The old man put a bag on the table and they shook hands.

‘You’re a strong man to have survived that. What work did they have you do?’

‘Felling trees.’

‘That explains how it’s such a powerful country. Forcing its prisoners to do something useful. Something for the country. We should have done that instead.’

‘I hate the place.’

‘It’s the future, Peter. I’ve started to learn the language.’

Mr Spinell sat down, slowly.

‘There’s meat, bread and vegetables. Lovely tomatoes.’

Katharina began to prepare a sandwich, quizzing her son’s spelling as she chopped the tomatoes. Faber picked up his brown paper parcel.

‘Actually, don’t worry about food for me. I should be on my way.’

He shook Mr Spinell’s hand.

‘Send my regards to your wife, Mr Spinell.’

She opened the hall door for him. He kissed her on the cheek.

‘Goodbye, Katharina.’

‘Goodbye, Peter.’

She closed her eyes, shutting him out.

‘I’m sorry, Katharina. I thought it would have been different. I imagined it differently.’

‘We all did, Peter.’

She closed the door and he went slowly down the stairs, into the street. The wind whipped at his legs and neck, but he was used to colder weather, so he walked on, away, towards the train station, his shadow stretching in front of him.

Acknowledgements

I extend my sincere thanks to those who helped me at pivotal moments, Colm Tóibín, Ed O’Loughlin, Mark Brennock, Fergal Keane, Cathy Kelly and PJ Lynch; to those who shared their experience and expertise, Rebecca Miller and the Inge Morath Foundation, Margritt Engel, Graham Darlington, William Micklem, Patrick Redmond, Felicity O’Mahony and Anne-Marie Casey; to those soldiers who told and wrote of their experiences, most especially the late Werner Pilz and Adelbert Holl; and to those many historians, diarists and archivists on whose work I have drawn.

My thanks too to my teachers, Joan Dobbyn, Professor Hugh Ridley and Wilma Petters; and to
The Times
and
The Irish Times
for dispatching me on an extraordinary range of assignments – I remain grateful for those experiences and encounters.

I am grateful to all at Atlantic Books in London, notably Toby Mundy, James Roxburgh, Karen Duffy, Lucy Howkins, and the ‘Atlantic book club’, but particularly to editor-in-chief, Ravi Mirchandani – it has been a pleasure and a privilege. I thank also editor, Sara Holloway; editors Elisabeth Schmitz and Jessica Monahan at Grove Atlantic in New York; and Simon Hess and his team at Gill Hess in Dublin.

And thank you, Peter Straus; it has been an honour. My sincere thanks to everyone else at Rogers, Coleridge and White literary agency in London, particularly Margaret Halton and Stephen Edwards; and to Melanie Jackson in New York.

I am very grateful to my meticulous readers, Dr Yvonne Ivory and Mary Morrissy, and to my other friends, Fiona Fullam, Nuala Haughey, Bronwyn Ryan, Lorraine Stewart, Michael Walsh, Shibéal Megan, David Whelehan, Madeleine de Baréid, Cordelia Tuck and Ronald Doherty for their assistance.

I am especially thankful to my sisters – Ruth, for that very precious gift of time; Anna, for her unrelenting generosity – and to my brother, Robert, and his wife, Niamh O’Connor, for their extraordinary commitment and assistance. I am deeply indebted to my late father, John, for his enduring wisdom, and to my mother, Maeve, for her unstinting faith and support.

To my daughters, Laurie, Anna and Sally, thank you for all the life that you bring to mine. And to my husband, Johnny – my gratitude to you has no parameters, and no end.

Note on the Author

AUDREY MAGEE
worked for twelve years as a journalist and has written for, among others,
The Times, The Irish Times
, the
Observer
and the
Guardian
. She studied German and French at University College Dublin and journalism at Dublin City University. She lives in Wicklow with her husband and three daughters.
The Undertaking
is her first novel.