From the doorway, Harry said: “It’s a buyer for the house. An actual buyer.” But Ruth didn’t hear him.
“Hello, honey,” Marion said to Ruth.
“Mommy . . .” Ruth managed to say.
Graham ran to Ruth. The four-year-old was still the age for clinging to her hips, which he did, and Ruth instinctively bent to pick him up. But her whole body stopped; she simply didn’t have the strength to lift him. Ruth rested one hand on Graham’s small shoulder; with the back of her other hand, she made a halfhearted attempt to wipe away her tears. Then she stopped trying—she let the tears come.
In the doorway, the artful Dutchman didn’t move. Harry knew better than to move.
Hannah was wrong, Eddie knew. There are moments when time does stop. We must be alert enough to notice such moments.
“Don’t cry, honey,” Marion told her only daughter. “It’s just Eddie and me.”
For Janet,
Acknowledgments
I am grateful for my many visits to Amsterdam during the four years I spent writing this novel, and I’m especially indebted to the patience and generosity of brigadier Joep de Groot of the District 2 police; without Joep’s advice, this book couldn’t have been written. I’m also indebted to the help given me by Margot Alvarez, formerly of De Rode Draad—an organization for prostitutes’ rights in Amsterdam. And most of all—for the time and care that he devoted to the manuscript—I want to thank Robbert Ammerlaan, my Dutch publisher. Regarding the Amsterdam sections in this book, I owe these three Amsterdammers incalculable thanks. For what I may have managed to get right, the credit belongs to them; if there are errors, the fault is mine.
As for the numerous parts of this novel not set in Amsterdam, I have relied on the expertise of Anna von Planta in Geneva, Anne Freyer in Paris, Ruth Geiger in Zurich, Harvey Loomis in Sagaponack, and Alison Gordon in Toronto. I must also cite the attention to detail that was ably demonstrated by three outstanding assistants: Lewis Robinson, Dana Wagner, and Chloe Bland: I commend Lewis and Dana and Chloe for the irreproachable carefulness of their work.
An oddity worth mentioning: the chapter called “The Red and Blue Air Mattress” was previously published—in slightly different form, and in German—in the S¸ddeutsche Zeitung, July 27, 1994, under the title “Die blaurote Luftmatratze.”
— J.I.
ALSO BY JOHN IRVING
Trying to Save Piggy Sneed
A Son of the Circus
A Prayer for Owen Meany
The Cider House Rules
The Hotel New Hampshire
The World According to Garp
The 158-Pound Marriage
The Water-Method Man
Setting Free the Bears
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JOHN WINSLOW IRVING was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942. He is the author of nine novels, among them The World According to Garp, The Hotel New Hampshire, The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and A Son of the Circus. Mr. Irving is married and has three sons; he lives in Toronto and in southern Vermont.
A Widow for One Year
JOHN IRVING
A Reader’s Guide
A Conversation with John Irving
Harvey Ginsberg has been John Irving’s close friend and editor for more than fifteen years. He edited the manuscripts of Mr. Irving’s last four novels, beginning with The Cider House Rules, and including A Prayer for Owen Meany, A Son of the Circus, and A Widow for One Year.