Ruben Gallego’s White on Black was awarded the Russian Booker Prize in 2003. And appropriately so. I thought it one of the most intriguing novels I’ve read this year, one which unrelentlessly invites the reader to think about time and place, loss and irritation, foolishness and music, democracy and wheelchairs, bayonets, books and borscht, and neverness – differently. But it’s the Acknowledgements that I wish to draw attention to here in this post, particularly in light of Ben Myers’ recent splash on book dedications.

Gallego concludes his book thus:

‘Thanks to Eve, our Foremother, for eating the apple.
Thanks to Adam, for taking part.
Special thanks to Eve.

Thanks to my grandmother Esperanza for bearing my mama.
Thanks to Ignacio for taking part.
Special thanks to my grandmother.

Thanks to my mama for bearing me.
Thanks to David for taking part.
Special thanks to my mama.

Thanks to my mama for bearing my sister.
Thanks to Sergei for taking part.
Special thanks to my mama.

Thanks to my literature teacher. Once when I was sick, she brought me chicken soup. She brought jam to class, and we ate jam and were perfectly happy. When I wrote compositions, she gave me the highest mark, when she didn’t give me the lowest.

Thanks to Sergei for editing and publishing my first texts.
Special thanks to my literature teacher for the jam.

Thanks to my wives, for having been.
Thanks to my daughters, for having been and being.
Special thanks to my daughters for being.

Thanks to all the women, granddaughters and grandmothers, young and old, beautiful and less beautiful.
Thanks to all the men.
Special thanks to the men for taking part.

Thanks again to my mama.