Tumble Home

Amy Hempel

Contents (14)

Praise for Amy Hempel’s Tumble Home

“As we read, we learn that to discover meaning in stray pieces of our universe is a happy, curative act. … Hempel makes haunting bits of beauty out of motley scraps.”

—ADAM BEGLEY, People

“Hempel writes with an effortless wit … showing us the larger shapes of our lives by capturing their most fleeting and fragmentary moments.”

—ELIZABETH GLEICK, The New York Times Book Review

“What sets them apart from every other writer’s characters is the quality of their wit and intellect and the rigor and compassion of their creator.”

—DAVID GATES, Newsweek

“Amy Hempel’s outstanding short stories pack enough gut-wrenching emotion and skewed wit, in greatly abbreviated pieces, to power several Tolstoy-length epics.”

—REBECCA RADNER, The San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

“[Hempel’s] most realized characters balm heartbreak with humor and find a way to endure, often searingly wounded, but unvanquished. … We sense ourselves in the presence of a poet.”

—ANDY SOLOMON, Chicago Tribune

“The details assemble … into deeply moving Gothic tales.”

—SUSAN SALTER REYNOLDS, Los Angeles Times Book Review

ALSO BY AMY HEMPEL

REASONS TO LIVE

AT THE GATES OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM

TUMBLE HOME

AMY HEMPEL

SCRIBNER
New York London Toronto Sydney Tokyo Singapore

SCRIBNER
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

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

First Scribner trade paperback edition 2004

SCRIBNER and design are trademarks of Macmillan Library Reference USA, Inc., used under license by Simon & Schuster, the publisher of this work.

For information regarding special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales: 1-800-456-6798 or [email protected]

Set in Garamond No. 3

Manufactured in the United States of America

7 9 10 8 6

The Library of Congress has cataloged the Scribner edition as follows:

Hempel, Amy.

Tumble home: a novella and short stories / Amy Hempel.

p. cm.

Contents: Weekend—Church cancels cow—The children’s party—Sportsman—Housewife—The annex—The new lodger—Tumble home.

I. Title.

PS3558.E47916T86 19987

813′.54—dc21 97-9681

CIP

ISBN 0-684-83375-1

0-684-83887-7(Pbk)

eISBN 978-1-439-10512-2

“Weekend” appeared first in Harper’s; “Sportsman” appeared first in GQ; “The Annex” in The Yale Review; “The New Lodger” in The Quarterly; “Church Cancels Cow” in The Alaska Quarterly Review; “Housewife” in Micro Fiction. Parts of “Tumble Home” appeared first in Epoch, Elle, and Salmagundi.

Dedication

For my brothers, GARDINER and PETER

Acknowledgments

For various kinds of generosity in respect of this book, I want to thank Deborah Berke, Christine Burgin, Bernard Cooper, Liz Darhansoff, Martha Gallahue, Nan Graham, A. M. Homes, R. S. Jones, Sheila Kohler, David Leavitt, Robert Polito, Hannah Siegel, Amy Tan, Anne Kaiser Taylor, Lily Tuck, Kathryn Walker, William Wegman, and the Corporation of Yaddo.