Acknowledgments

Many thanks go to my literary agent, Zoe Sandler; to Drew Weitman, my editor; to Amy Robbins, my copy editor; and to everyone at Norton.

And to Three's Company—thank you.

Praise for One’s Company

“This book is such a savvy, deadpan, moving meditation-unto-absurdity on obsession and trauma and throwaway television and the ways that our hobbies can hurt us and heal us and sometimes overwhelm us. I absolutely loved it.”

—Amber Sparks, author of And I Do Not Forgive You

“Like some uncanny hybrid of Tom McCarthy, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Mulholland Drive, Ashley Hutson’s high-concept black comedy, One’s Company, packs deranged laughs against deep trauma in a no-holds-barred debut. Surreal, ambitious, and page-turning, the painful memory performance of Bonnie Lincoln’s wish to live forever in a sitcom might be more realistic than the realism we think we know.”

—Blake Butler, author of Alice Knott

“Ashley Hutson’s novel fearlessly takes on trauma, loneliness, madness, and desire in wholly unexpected ways. The dazzling imagination of the novel’s formidable protagonist, Bonnie Lincoln, is rivaled only by that of her brilliant creator: One’s Company is a totally original, bitterly funny, and emotionally complex tale about the power of fantasy to both save and destroy the things we cherish.”

—Maryse Meijer, author of The Seventh Mansion

Copyright © 2022 by Ashley Hutson

All rights reserved

First Edition

“I’ve Gotta Be Me” (from Golden Rainbow). Music and lyrics by Walter Marks. Copyright © 1967 (renewed) WC Music Corp. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Alfred Music.

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Cover design: Joanne O’Neill

Cover illustrations: (canary) Buyenlarge /Archive Photos / Getty Images; (sky) CSA Images / Getty Images

Author photograph: Heath Gibson

Book design by Beth Steidle

Production manager: Beth Steidle

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

ISBN 978-0-393-86664-3 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-393-86665-0 (ebk.)

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