The Letter Opener (28 page)
Speaking in the Air
by John Durham Peters, “Remembering the Dead” by James H. Bruns, “Lost in the Mail” by Jonathan Franzen and Paul Tough’s radio segment “Other People’s Mail” on
This American Life
provided helpful particulars on mail recovery.
Let the Children Come
by Robert B. Lantz introduced me to the Christian practice of object lessons. The “Czech author” mentioned on page 245 is based on Milan Kundera, who wrote about the “lost years” of Communism in his book
Testaments Betrayed: An Essay in Nine Parts
(HarperCollins, 1993: p. 225).
The image of Rachel throwing valuables into the latrines at Auschwitz-Birkenau on page 286 was inspired by Chavka Raban-Folman’s testimony “The Liaison Agent” in
Women in the Holocaust
, eds. Jehoshua Eibeshitz and Anna Eilenberg-Eibeshitz.
For those interested in an inside view of the fall of the Ceausescu regime, I highly recommend
Videograms of a Revolution
, Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujica’s fascinating video essay covering the events of 1989.
I am profoundly thankful to George Foussias, Marvin Waxman and Marvin Wiesenthal for their support; to Horia Albu and artistcurator
Mona Filip for sharing thoughts and memories about their former homeland, Romania; and to Hiromi Goto, Karen Hanson, Elisabeth Harvor and the Humber School of Writing, Kerri Sakamoto, M. NourbeSe Philip, Martha Baillie and Lorissa Sengara for providing literary mentorship over the years.
I am also appreciative of the Japan Foundation Library, the Gladstone Hotel, and the wonderful caregivers at Queen Street Childcare Centre and Givins-Shaw School and Daycare for their respective gifts of writing space and writing time.
My deepest gratitude to:
The Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council, for foundational support.
The amazing team at HarperCollins Canada, particularly Kate Cassaday, Debbie Gaudet, Sharon Kish, Allyson Latta, Nita Pronovost and Noelle Zitzer for showing true dedication.
Nicole Winstanley, for expressing steady faith.
Jackie Kaiser, a model of kindness, for guiding this book to print with such commitment and flair.
Phyllis Bruce, for performing great feats of literary and human magic.
Finally and foremost, I offer a toast to my loving family—and in particular:
My parents, Mariko and Michael Maclear.
David Wall, my soulmate.
Yoshi and Mika, our two beautiful boys.
This is for you.
“Maclear is a novelist of promise. She has a way of drawing characters and drawing readers to them.”—
The Hamilton Spectactor
“In this unusual, cerebral tale, Maclear shows her young narrator striving—successfully at last—to connect the missing pieces in the great puzzle that is the world.”—
Toronto Star
“Maclear does have a very felicitous way with words that makes the book a compelling read…There is resonance and thoughtfulness to [her] writing, and in her visceral championing of the lost, the forgotten, the quiet and even the shabby.”—
Quill & Quire
“Kyo Maclear’s humanity is an indispensable part of everything she writes. It’s the basis of her commitment to history’s forgotten people and its undelivered stories. Her voice is exquisite and incisive.”—Joy Kogawa
“An ingenious work of fiction that combines rich, intimate characters with a narrative that unfolds like a puzzle box.
The Letter Opener
is that rare book that nourishes both the mind and the heart, at once wise and tender.”—Naomi Klein
“This is an extraordinarily thoughtful novel about the travails of the diaspora of lost souls who have been victims of totalitarian regimes. It all feels so tranquil, so exact, so hallucinatory in a tidy and scientifically organized way, the report of such a careful, observant and honest witness.”—Elisabeth Harvor
The Letter Opener
© 2007 by Kyo Maclear.
P.S. section © 2007 by Kyo Maclear.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © JUNE 2010 ISBN: 978-1-443-40323-8
A Phyllis Bruce Book, published by Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
Excerpt from
The Waves
, by Virginia Woolf, reprinted with permission from The Society of Authors as the Literary Representative of the Estate of Virginia Woolf.
From “Stoned Gloves” in
Pacific Windows: Collected Poems of Roy K. Kiyooka
, © 1997, Talon Books Ltd., Vancouver, BC. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Photograph on page ix by Sami Suni; page 173 by Johnny Lye; page 237 by Mark Roeper/all iStockphoto
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East – 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com