Claire Marvel

by John Burnham Schwartz

  “Listen,” said Corinne urgently, taking my hand. “Listen to me now, Julian, and always remember: c’était un accident. Un accident. There was so much more Claire wanted. And already when she fell, she was coming to you.”

  nine

  THE WOOD IS IN THE BARN. The sheep are in for the night. At day’s end I stand on the terrace of the house we once shared and watch the valley born again with the lights of other lives, as the gray-blue river that is Claire’s spirit grows silvered and yet still more luminous. Until as evening comes, her glow finally starts to fade, and I let her go.

  acknowledgments

  I am particularly indebted to the following people:

  My agent, Binky Urban, whose support and wisdom have guided me since I was twenty-one, and always will.

  Nan Talese, for being that brilliant, old-school editor writers dream about but almost never meet in real life.

  Ileene Smith, whose razor-sharp intelligence as a reader is matched only by her generosity as a friend.

  Beatrice Rezzori and the Santa Maddalena Foundation in Donnini, Italy, for the chance to work undisturbed in a place of great beauty, peace, and inspiration.

  Ed Maddox and Zach Goodyear of Choate Rosemary Hall, who long ago showed me what it means to be a good teacher.

  And finally, my wife, Aleksandra, who gave me the knowledge, and the desire, to write a love story.

  FIRST VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES EDITION, MARCH 2003

  Copyright © 2002 by John Burnham Schwartz

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Nan A. Talese, an imprint of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2002.

  Vintage is a registered trademark and Vintage Contemporaries and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the

  Nan A. Talese/Doubleday edition as follows:

  Schwartz, John Burnham

  Claire Marvel: a novel / John Burnham Schwartz

  p. cm.

  eISBN: 978-1-4000-7580-5

  1. Political science teachers—Fiction. 2. Graduate students—Fiction. 3. Loss (Psychology)—Fiction. I. Title

  PS3569.C5658 C57 2002

  813′.54—dc21

  2001044413

  www.vintagebooks.com

  v3.0