Kissing in America
Page 26
—Detroit Free Press
“A powerful debut with unforgettable characters and important things to tell us about family, history, death, love, and philosophy. It’s a story that will heal your own heart.”
—jbooks.com
“In a wry, introspective first-person narrative (sections of which were previously published as short stories), Mia examines the ripple effects of this tragedy, showing how grief and loss infiltrate her life. An artful mix of the poignant and the sometimes comically mundane.”
—The Horn Book
“Humor carries this novel, preventing it from being maudlin. Reminiscent of Mexican milagros, those small religious charms nailed on sacred objects to denote miracles, it is through a series of seemingly small experiences that a shattered heart is miraculously mended.”
—Ingram Library Services
“A witty, matter-of-fact, and heartfelt look at what grief means to one teenager, and how the relationships and habits Mia acquires help her to accept change. The light, everyday comedy born of a series of disasters prevents the book from becoming maudlin. Peripheral characters are delightfully, even frighteningly, real in their details.”
—VOYA
“If you go to Amazon and limit your search to children’s books and type in cancer, you’ll get more than 4,000 book titles. With the field so packed with already published books, I thought it would be unlikely for a new book on the subject to be a MUST READ. And now I’m recommending this with all my heart, for teens and adults.”
—Marianas Variety
“Cures for Heartbreak is a sad, funny, smart, endlessly poignant novel. Reading it made me feel grateful for my life, for my family, and above all for the world that brings us gifts like the gift of Margo Rabb.”
—Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
“Margo Rabb’s story beautifully brings together the intensely personal and the historical, and rings with the authenticity of a bitter, yet illuminating truth.”
—Joyce Carol Oates
“Cures for Heartbreak is full of sadness, humor, and quirky details that ring completely true. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
—Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Prep and Sisterland
Credits
Cover art © 2015 by Thomas Burden
Cover design by Kate J. Engbring
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any references to actual people, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity, and are used fictitiously. Any other resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A brief excerpt of this novel was published in different form under the title “How to Tell a Story” in Zoetrope: All Story, 1999.
Lines from “O Tell Me the Truth about Love”: Copyright 1940 by W. H. Auden, renewed. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd. Copyright © 1940 and renewed 1968 by W. H. Auden; from W. H. Auden Collected Poems by W. H. Auden. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Millay Estate for “Ancient Gesture” (2 lines) and “Time Does Not Bring Relief.”
The lines from Poem XVIII of “Twenty-One Love Poems.” Copyright © 2013 by The Adrienne Rich Literary Trust. Copyright © 1978 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. The lines from “(The Floating Poem, Unnumbered)” of “Twenty-One Love Poems.” Copyright © 2013 by The Adrienne Rich Literary Trust. Copyright © 1978 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. The line from “Power.” Copyright © 2013 by The Adrienne Rich Literary Trust. Copyright © 1978 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., from Later Poems: Selected and New, 1971–2012 by Adrienne Rich. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
“One Art” from The Complete Poems 1927–1979 by Elizabeth Bishop. Copyright © 1979, 1983 by Alice Helen Methfessel. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
“A Letter,” from The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai by Yehuda Amichai. Copyright © 2013 by Yehuda Amichai. Reproduced with permission of University of California Press Books via Copyright Clearance Center.
“What the Living Do,” from What the Living Do by Marie Howe. Copyright © 1997 by Marie Howe. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
KISSING IN AMERICA. Copyright © 2015 by Margo Rabb. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.epicreads.com
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2015935856
EPub Edition © May 2015 ISBN 9780062322395
ISBN 978-0-06- 232237-1
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FIRST EDITION
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