More information about the global refugee crisis can be found on the website of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees – UNHCR.org. I also used the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network’s 2012 report on Asylum and Migration in the Maghreb （Country Fact Sheet: Morocco） as a source of reference, as well as the March 2013 report by Médecins Sans Frontières （MSF） on Violence, Vulnerability and Migration: Trapped at the Gates of Europe （a report on the situation of sub-Saharan migrants in an irregular situation in Morocco）。 According to a 2020 report by MSF on Mediterranean Search and Rescue, during the course of 2019 there were 123,700 arrivals in Europe by sea: 27% of those attempting to travel were children. It is estimated that around 1,500 people making the crossing lost their lives.
For help and support with bereavement, some of the following may provide a useful starting point:
UK – CRUSE Bereavement Care www.cruse.org.uk ; Child Bereavement UK – www.childbereavementuk.org ; Supportline （UK） www.supportline.org.uk
USA – The American Counseling Association www.counseling.org ; Good Therapy www.goodtherapy.org
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
One morning, I received an email from a gentleman in America who had read some of my books. He said he wished he had a granddaughter who could tell the story of his wife’s time in Casablanca at the outset of the Second World War, having been displaced by the Vichy regime in France. That piqued my interest. Other than the famous film, I knew very little about North Africa in the war years. And so began a journey that would lead to me writing this book. Mr Cohen, I hope you may read it and feel that, in some way, your wife’s story has reached a wider audience. Thank you for setting me on the path.
Writing a novel set in Casablanca during a global pandemic gave me a few extra challenges, but I enjoyed ‘escaping’ lockdown and vicariously spending time wandering the markets and beaches of Morocco.
Thank you to my publisher, Lake Union, and to the whole team who support me through the writing and editing process: Sammia Hamer, Nicole Wagner, Bekah Graham, Mike Jones and Jenni Davis and Sarah Day. Special thanks to Emma Rogers for her beautiful cover design. Madeleine Milburn, my fabulous agent, you are a total star. Thanks to everyone at the Madeleine Milburn Agency for cheering me on and selling the translation rights for my work into all those other countries around the world.
My friend Lesley Singers told me about the use of quilts in the Underground Railway and taught me to tell the difference between a fat eighth and a long quarter. She also listened to my ideas with unerring patience and enthusiasm as we trudged for miles through sunshine and rain on our weekly walks. Thank you for accompanying me on this latest journey, and thanks to Jim and the rest of the Singers family for all their support.
James and Alastair, may you find that the moonlight fills one hundred bowls of water wherever you go in the world.
And to everyone whose lives have been impacted by the extraordinary times we have been living through, please keep dreaming your dreams. Because even the darkest of nights ends with a sunrise.