Requiem

I acknowledge The Fraser by Bruce Hutchison; The Letters of Beethoven, 3 vols., collected, edited and translated by Emily Anderson; Heinrich Boll’s essay “The Place Was Incidental” in Missing Persons and Other Essays.

I appreciate the love, support and expertise of my husband, Ted, and my children. For answering my many questions about music, thanks to my son, Russell Satoshi Itani. To my daughter, Samantha Leiko Itani, thanks for constantly checking in and for responding to my queries about the natural world. Also, for advice, love and support sent my way, I thank composer Yehudi Wyner, and conductor Susan Davenny Wyner, both in Massachusetts; composer Gabriela Ortiz in Mexico City; pianist Emily Upham in New York. Many thanks to the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in New York, which generously provided me with a fellowship and residency at an Italian castle in Umbria: a wonderful retreat where I had the support of director and staff, and the company of fine artists in residence at the time. My gratitude and special thanks go to stroke expert Dr. Antoine Hakim, to artist Bobbie Oliver and to actor Eve Crawford. To artist Norman Takeuchi, I so appreciate our many discussions and the visits to your studio. I thank legal expert, Ilario Maiolo, who helped me to understand the laws of the period and what constitutes a Crime Against Humanity. Also, special thanks to: Craig Smith; Aileen Bramhall Itani; Joel Oliver; Judy Oliver; Orm and Barb Mitchell; Paul Kariya; Terry Gronbeck-Jones; my former professor Gordon Hirabayashi; Caroline Page and the original “Basil.” A few incidents in Requiem first saw the light of day in an earlier story called “Flashcards.” Resemblance to any person living or dead, or to any names found within, is entirely coincidental; this is a work of fiction. If there are errors in background or historical information, I take full responsibility.

Finally, with great affection, I acknowledge my agent, Jackie Kaiser, and my editor and publisher at HarperCollins, Phyllis Bruce. I know it’s there, always, during these long journeys: your unwavering support. I thank you both.

About the Author

FRANCES ITANI had a spectacular international debut with her first novel, Deafening, which received a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book (Canada and Caribbean region) and was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. It became a #1 bestseller in Canada and was published in seventeen countries and in many languages. Her second novel, Remembering the Bones, also a bestseller, was shortlisted for a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Her short story collection, Poached Egg On Toast, won the Ottawa Book Award and the CAA Jubilee Award for Short Stories. A member of the Order of Canada, Itani lives in Ottawa.

A NOTE ON THE TYPE

This book is set in Dante, the first versions of which were the product of a collaboration between Giovanni Mardersteig, a printer, book and typeface designer, and Charles Malin, one of the great punch-cutters of the twentieth century.

Mardersteig drew on his experience of using Monotype Bembo and Centaur to design a new book face with an italic that worked harmoniously with the roman. Years of collaboration with Malin had taught him the nuances of letter construction, and the two worked closely to develop a design that was easy to read. Special care was taken in the design of the serifs and top curves of the lowercase to create a subtle horizontal stress, which helps the eye move smoothly across the page.

In 1955, after six years of work, the fonts were used to publish Boccaccio’s Trattatello in laude di Dante. The design took its name from this project.

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About the author

Author Biography

FRANCES ITANI is the author of fourteen books: novels, poetry, short stories and children’s books. Born in Belleville, Ontario, she grew up in rural Quebec from the age of four. She has a BA in Psychology and English and an MA in English Literature. She is also a registered nurse, having studied at the Montreal General Hospital School of Nursing, McGill University and Duke University in North Carolina. She practised and taught nursing for eight years before becoming a writer.

Itani had a spectacular international debut with her first novel, Deafening, which received a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book and was shortlisted for the 2005 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the William Saroyan International Prize. Deafening was a #1 bestseller in Canada; it won the Kingston Reads Award and was named Book of the Year by Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton. In 2006, it was chosen in both English and French by CBC’s Canada Reads and Combat des livres. The novel was also optioned for film and has been translated and published in seventeen countries.

Her second novel, Remembering the Bones, also a bestseller, was published internationally and shortlisted for a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Itani’s stories have won two Ottawa Book Awards for English fiction, and she is a three-time winner of the CBC Literary Award. Her collection Poached Egg On Toast won the 2005 CAA Jubilee Award for best book of stories published in Canada. Leaning, Leaning Over Water was published internationally; it was a selection of The Times’ Book Group in the U.K. Itani has written two short novels for adult literacy classes: Listen! and Missing. Requiem has also been published in the U.S. and is forthcoming in Germany and Bulgaria.

Itani has contributed to The Washington Post, The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, Canadian Geographic, Saturday Night, Ottawa Citizen and many other publications. Currently, she is on the advisory board of Youth in Motion’s Top 20 Under 20 Award. A member of the Order of Canada, she lives in Ottawa.

Meet Frances Itani

How has your being part of a large family of Irish Canadian storytellers influenced you and your writing?

I was surrounded by kitchen-table narrative. My mother, my aunts and uncles were all storytellers. Our own family lived in Quebec and our relatives lived in Eastern Ontario, so it was during visits that I overheard multi- layered accounts of complicated lives. Everyone, it seemed, had stored up something to tell. I lived in the midst of stories from the past, stories created in the moment, imaginings into the future. I was on the sidelines trying to figure out how adults moved through this complex world of theirs—so totally unlike the world of children, which I