The Quickening (24 page)

The following organizations offered time and support for writing this book: the UMass-Amherst MFA program, the MacDowell Colony, the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers’ Conferences, Bucknell University and Philip Roth for the Philip Roth Writer-in-Residency program, PEN New England, Grub Street, and Boston University.

Finally, I’d like to thank my family for their continued support and love; my mother, Lorene Hoover, my sister Lisa Carstens and the Carstens family, my brother David Hoover, and the Marshall family, in particular my uncle Lowell Marshall, who endured ceaseless questions about farm life and practices. Thanks to my late aunt, Irene Israel, for her love, and especially to my late father, Lee Hoover, whom I miss.

Copyright © 2010 Michelle Hoover

Parts of this novel appeared, in an earlier form, in
The Massachusetts Review, Prairie Schooner, Confrontation
, and
Best New American Voices 2004
.

Production Editor:
Yvonne E. Cárdenas

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from Other Press LLC, except in the case of brief quotations in reviews for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast. For information write to Other Press LLC, 2 Park Avenue, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10016. Or visit our Web site:
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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Hoover, Michelle.
The quickening / Michelle Hoover.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-59051-360-6
1. Neighbors—Fiction. 2. Farm life–Fiction. 3. Domestic fiction. I. Title.
PS3608.O6253Q53 2010
813′.6—dc22
2010005199

PUBLISHER’S NOTE:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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