Standard Deviation: ‘The best feel-good novel around’ Daily Mail

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Standard Deviation: ‘The best feel-good novel around’ Daily Mail
Katherine Heiny

‘One of the funniest books you will ever read’ Daily Mail‘Standard Deviation is a marvel’ Kate Atkinson‘Looking for a blissful summer novel? Here it is’ Washington Post‘This is the beach book for summer 2017’ The Times‘Addictive reading’ Mail on Sunday‘A comic masterpiece’ ObserverA divinely funny novel about the challenges of a good marriage, the delight and heartache of raising children, and the irresistible temptation to wonder about the path not taken. This sensational debut will appeal to fans of David Nicholls, Nick Hornby, Nora Ephron and Lorrie Moore.Graham Cavanaugh’s second wife, Audra, is everything his first wife was not. She considers herself privileged to live in the age of the hair towel, talks non-stop through her epidural, labour and delivery, invites the doorman to move in and the eccentric members of their son’s Origami Club to Thanksgiving. She is charming and spontaneous and fun but life with her can be exhausting.In the midst of the day-to-day difficulties and delights of marriage and raising a child with Asperger’s, his first wife, Elspeth, reenters Graham’s life. Former spouses are hard to categorize – are they friends, enemies, old flames, or just people who know you really, really well? Graham starts to wonder: How can anyone love two such different women? Did he make the right choice? Is there a right choice?

Copyright (#ulink_cec9ac8f-fda7-5556-b924-917b61d393c5)

4th Estate

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.4thEstate.co.uk (http://www.4thEstate.co.uk)

This eBook first published in Great Britain by 4th Estate in 2017

First published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, in 2017

Copyright © 2017 Katherine Heiny

Cover design by Heike Schüssler

Cover images © plainpicture/Rudi Sebastian

Katherine Heiny asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

Portions of this work originally appeared, in different form, in the following publications: Chapter one has appeared as “Fluent in Her Language” in the Antioch Review, Winter 2012; chapter two appeared as “The Seamy Side” in the Southern Review, Summer 2013; chapter three appeared as “We’re Here” in the Southern Review, Winter 2013; chapter four appeared as “Lame Duck” in the Gettysburg Review, Summer 2014; chapter five appeared as “Leviathan” in Glimmer Train, Issue 90, Spring / Summer 2014.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, 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 hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins

Source ISBN: 9780008105525

Ebook Edition © May 2018 ISBN: 9780008105518

Version: 2018-06-27

Dedication (#ulink_8500099f-ec9e-58cf-9d2c-189131240546)

FOR Ian

Epigraph (#ulink_1531044b-fe85-5c13-98b8-0eaf2a68355b)

Before you became my mistress I led a blameless life.

LAURIE COLWIN

Contents

Cover (#u701c1e55-d2c1-55b8-b755-8ae0af94a03d)

Title Page (#u80aac62e-e967-5039-bfb9-41c3e84937ad)

Copyright (#u46826a2c-bbb9-5a2e-801f-74e7ca0c72a0)

Dedication (#ue9c72064-98ef-53ac-9330-cf27c14baa58)

Epigraph (#u66ef8b58-f362-55a8-9436-5bc93547b838)

Chapter | One (#u56cc846b-1fc3-5daf-b6c0-2d133129eeac)

Chapter | Two (#u0a2f7b3b-07d8-553d-bbbb-80df2c410beb)

Chapter | Three (#u26a56b7a-4363-5136-bd8f-aea38ae96bd9)

Chapter | Four (#u8295cd6d-43d9-56a1-ba91-e49243e910cb)

Chapter | Five (#u674fe407-2724-53df-bc6b-d138699eb2d2)

Chapter | Six (#u3d6472cc-ef74-5170-8bef-4569e17b1a75)

Chapter | Seven (#u0b3e4a1e-45af-5b74-aa6f-bd6bfbf36f3a)

Chapter | Eight (#ue994e3a4-9081-5ea9-9edb-5fd8684ae12e)

Chapter | Nine (#ufb0bfeeb-0866-53d9-8292-80b6872f0171)

Acknowledgments (#ub601d7fa-064c-5000-b0a5-6a4e06f30d8f)

Keep Reading … (#u2728b600-4d74-517c-9f4f-f7339efa849b)

Also by Katherine Heiny (#uf5441207-fa7f-5a87-8e2a-0cd808f66a31)

About the Publisher (#u6474000f-d87d-5234-9c26-3c95448a8f9e)