Second Skin (26 page)

also by John Hawkes

The Beetle Leg

The Blood Oranges

The Cannibal

Death, Sleep and the Traveler

The Lime Twig

Travesty

Virginie: Her Two Lives (signed, limited edition)

Copyright © 1963, 1964 by John Hawkes

Copyright © 2005 by Jeffrey Eugenides

All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in a newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or website review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

Portions of this book first appeared in
The Texas Quarterly
and in
Vogue
, to whose editors grateful acknowledgement is made.

The author also acknowledges generous help given to him by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

First published clothbound and as New Directions Paperbook 146 in 1964.

Reissued as New Directions Paperbook 1027 in 2005.

Published simultaneously in Canada by Penguin Books Canada Limited.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hawkes, John, 1925-1998

Second skin / John Hawkes; preface by Jeffrey Eugenides.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-811-22260-0 (e-book)

1. World War, 1939-1945-Veterans-Fiction. 2. Suicide victims-Family relationships-Fiction. 3. Grandparent and child-Fiction. 4. Loss (Psychology)-Fiction. 5. Cattle breeders-Fiction. 6. Grandfathers-Fiction. 7. Bereavement-Fiction. 8. Islands-Fiction. I. Title.

PS3558.A82S4 2005

813’.54-dc22

2005021516

New Directions Books arc published for James Laughlin

by New Directions Publishing Corporation

80 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10011