CS: You’re the friend I’ve learned the most from because you’re so smart and opinionated, and you also see the world in a really different way than I do. But now that we’re publicly exposing our friendship, do you think it will go the way of Gwyneth and Winona’s? Also, in this scenario, which of us will end up shoplifting from Saks and which of us will dispense frittata recipes on a lifestyle website?

SD: I think I’m the boring domestic of the two of us, so it might be me with the web site (I think you probably disagree with this assessment). But then again, you’re staunchly ethical, so I can’t see you going the way of Winona. I think a better model for our friendship, which I’m proud to publish, is that of Ann Patchett and Elizabeth McCracken, two writers who for decades have read for each other and supported each other while living in different cities. What I hope is that we continue to enjoy the differences between us—as writers, mothers, wives, friends—and never let them distance us. When we met, we hadn’t yet made the decisions that would root our lives, as we have now. I look forward to a future when maybe we don’t live so far apart, and maybe our kids play independently together while we kick back and read magazines and talk about what Winona and Gwyneth are up to these days. Because who even remembers that they were friends once, except the two of us?

Credits

Jacket photograph by Jason Fulford

Jacket design by Christine Van Bree

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

STILTSVILLE. Copyright © 2010 by Susanna Daniel. 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 e-books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

EPub Edition August 2010 ISBN: 9780062005489

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