About Mrs. Kimble:
In her masterful first novel Mrs. Kimble, Jennifer Haigh delivers the compelling story of three women who marry the same man--an engimatic opportunist named Ken Kimble.

Kimble is revealed through the eyes of the women he seduces: his first wife, Birdie Bell, who struggles to hold herself together in the months following his desertion; his second wife, Joan Cohen, a lonely heiress shaken by personal tragedy, who sees in Kimble her last chance at happiness; and finally Dinah Whitacre, a beautiful but damaged woman half his age. Woven throughout is the story of Kimble's son, Charlie, whose life is forever affected by a father he barely remembers. Ken Kimble is a chameleon, a man able to become, at least for a while, all things to all women. To each of the three Mrs. Kimbles, he appears as a hero to whom powerful needs and nameless longings may be attached. Only later do they glimpse the truth about this elusive, unknowable man.

A captivating exploration of human love, marriage, and the illusions upon which it is founded, Mrs. Kimble presents a fascinating psychological portrait of a mesmerizing opportunist and the women who believe in him. Beautifully wrought, stunningly original, Jennifer Haigh's sparkling debut marks the arrival of a remarkable new talent.

About Ship Sooner:
Ship Sooner hears everyone and everything in her sleepy Massachusetts town. The sounds of frost forming on glass, a rabbit hopping on just-fallen snow, and a fork crimping a piecrust are as clear to Ship as an old Sinatra tune playing at full volume in the town diner. Misunderstood by her classmates and ignored by her disdainful older sister, Ship consoles herself by listening to the sounds of others' secrets: her mother's lips pressing against those of a balding salesman's; and her only friend Brian Dodd's promising his parents not to tell where he goes with them on Sunday afternoons.

Ship's isolation intensifies when Brian disappears inexplicably the day after Christmas. During the long winter of 1981, Ship keeps vigil for Brian and slowly loses hope. But as winter melts into spring, an unexpected cry from the woods will lead her to make an astonishing discovery, one that compels her to abandon all that she has known and set out on a journey that will transform her life.

This is the story of a gifted young girl who comes to realize that what has cut her off from others has also given her the means to become her truest self. In vibrant prose, Mary Sullivan captures the tender and tough essence of an adolescent whose extraordinary sensitivity teaches us to listen for those softest of sounds -- of hope, need, and desire -- that whisper through all our lives. Ship Sooner is an utterly original character whose distinctive voice and startling perception of the undertones of everyday life will hook readers from the very first page and linger on in their memories long after the last page is turned.

Jennifer Haigh grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Dickinson College and the Iowa Writer's Workshop, where she was awarded a 2002 James A. Michener Fellowship. Her short stories have been published in Good Housekeeping, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Idaho Review, Global City Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Mary Sullivan, author of Stay, has received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award and a St. Botolph Foundation Award. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and daughter.