Rutting Season Read online

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  © SIMONE PARSONS

  MANDELIENE SMITH’s stories have appeared in Guernica, The Sun, New England Review, and The Massachusetts Review. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and selected for the list of “100 Other Distinguished Stories” in The Best American Short Stories.

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  Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Mandeliene-Smith

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by Mandeliene Smith

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Scribner Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

  First Scribner hardcover edition February 2019

  SCRIBNER and design are registered trademarks of The Gale Group, Inc., used under license by Simon & Schuster, Inc., the publisher of this work.

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  Interior design by Kyle Kabel

  Jacket design by Grace Han

  Jacket artwork: Illustration from Birds of America, 1827–38 (hand-colored engraving and aquatint), Audubon, John James (1785–1851)/Collection of the Duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth House, UK/© Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth/reproduced by permission of Chatsworth Settlement Trustees/Bridgeman Images

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

  ISBN 978-1-5011-9270-8

  ISBN 978-1-5011-9272-2 (ebook)

  Some of the stories in this volume were previously published, including “Friday Night,” which first appeared in New England Review; “Mercy” in The Sun; “Rutting Season” in Guernica; and “Animals” in The Massachusetts Review.