The Thing Around Your Neck

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Sarah Chalfant, Robin Desser, and Mitzi Angel.

The following stories have been previously published: “Jumping Monkey Hill” in Granta 95: Loved Ones; “On Monday of Last Week” in Granta 98: The Deep End; “The Arrangers of Marriage” as “New Husband” in Iowa Review; “Cell One” and “The Headstrong Historian” in The New Yorker; “Imitation” in Other Voices; “The American Embassy” in Prism Inter national; “The Thing Around Your Neck” in Prospect 99; “Tomorrow Is Too Far” in Prospect 118; “A Private Experience” in Virginia Quarterly Review; and “Ghosts” in Zoetrope: All-Story. “The American Embassy” also appeared in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2003, edited by Laura Furman (Anchor Books, 2003).