Finally, to Quince Mountain, who’s been beside me through every stage of writing (and for everything else, too). You are the love of my life and my ultimate survival partner. Every day with you is an adventure and a gift.

About the Author

BLAIR BRAVERMAN is the author of Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube and Dogs on the Trail; a contributing editor to Outside magazine; and a contributor to the New York Times, Vogue, This American Life, and elsewhere. As a musher and adventurer, she has completed the Iditarod, survived naked for fourteen days in the South African bush, and crossed thousands of miles of wilderness by dogsled. She lives in the Wisconsin northwoods with her husband, Quince Mountain, and their sled dogs.

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Also by Blair Braverman

Dogs on the Trail

Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

SMALL GAME. Copyright © 2022 by Blair Braverman. 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, downloaded, 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.

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FIRST EDITION

Cover design by Vivian Lopez Rowe

Cover photographs © TMI/Alamy Stock Photo (island); © Shutterstock (fires)

Title Page Illustration © PikePicture/stock.adobe.com

Digital Edition NOVEMBER 2022 ISBN: 978-0-06-306619-9

Version 08162022

Print ISBN: 978-0-06-306617-5

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