The Sweet Relief of Missing Children (28 page)

More Praise for

THE SWEET RELIEF

OF MISSING

CHILDREN

“An unflinching probe into the frailty of children's dreams and desires. . . . [A] brave and daring book. . . . Highly original and a superb work of fiction.”

—
Portland Press Herald

“Artfully executed, with the precise touch of a writer whose power lies not in any spectacularly plotted storyline but in the careful orchestration of many rich details. . . . An undercurrent of necessary humor keeps
Sweet Relief
's pages free of melodrama, while subtly asserting the absurdity of life.”

—Daphne Kalotay,
Tottenville Review

“Everywhere . . . there is desire. Braunstein doesn't shy away from tunneling into her characters' most secret shames and obsessions, and her talent lies in her ability to depict them as at once unique and banal. . . . Ultimately—almost improbably—we are left with a shimmer of hope. . . . We're reminded that what
trapped
means for one person is freedom to someone else. And that freedom itself may be a kind of trap. There is beauty in these sympathies, even if they're not the easy ones; there is sad, sweet relief and the poignant, loose dumbness of life. Braunstein presents it here beautifully, unsparingly, and true.”

—
Provincetown Arts

“Sarah Braunstein has written a startling and darkly beautiful first novel. Her characters are so vivid, so perfectly drawn, that I doubt you will ever forget them. Braunstein's talent is enormous.”

—Danielle Trussoni, author of
Angelology

“How to describe a book this beautiful, and this devastating? Sarah Braunstein traces love's strange and manifold forms, and gives voice to the fears and longings we thought unspeakable. Such immaculate writing, such fierce clarity of vision: I emerged from her novel feeling shaken, exhilarated, changed.”

—Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, author of
Madeline Is Sleeping

“I admire Braunstein's compassion for her characters. . . . As the novel progresses, the characters encounter one another in surprising ways, and their separate stories come together like pieces of broken glass from an object that can never be reconstructed.”

—Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of
Once Upon a River

“Sarah Braunstein has created a dazzling novel. Luminous and precise, each scene is cast in a hyperreal glare, as the story rushes to an unexpected yet thrilling conclusion. I love this book so much, I hated to reach the final page.”

—Malena Watrous, author of
If You Follow Me

Copyright © 2011 by Sarah Braunstein

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

First published as a Norton paperback 2011

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this
book, write to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.,

500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact
W. W. Norton Special Sales at [email protected] or 800-233-4830

Manufacturing by Courier Westford

Book design by Chris Welch

Production manager: Anna Oler

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Braunstein, Sarah, 1976–

The sweet relief of missing children / Sarah Braunstein. — 1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-393-07659-2 (hardcover)

1. Missing children—Fiction. 2. Runaways—Fiction.
3. New York (N.Y.)—Fiction. 4. Psychological fiction. I. Title.

PS3602.R3895S94 2011

813
'
.6—dc22

2010037720

ISBN 978-0-393-34075-4 pbk.

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110

www.wwnorton.com

W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.

Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QT

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