“Clever…. An admirable debut novel…. Haigh has certainly succeeded in creating a trio of memorable characters. The three Mrs. Kimbles—a deserted housewife, a frustrated feminist, and a disappointed mother—present the whole gamut of family values gone awry.”
—
Washington Post Book World
“An affecting tale of the power of a charismatic predator and the acquiescence of his victims. Ken Kimble…is a chilling creation.”
—
Boston Globe
“Vivid and moving…. The book’s detail-packed, omniscient point of view makes it a guilty pleasure for readers who love to snoop on the woman next door…. Mrs. Kimble exists as a work of unique poignancy. Read it to grieve with its characters, to sit with them as they struggle to go on in their troubled worlds, and to cheer them when they somehow find the way.”
—
Buffalo News
“Luminous…. A beautiful novel with memorable, vibrant characters.”
—
Booklist
J
ENNIFER
H
AIGH
grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania. She is an alumnus of Dickinson College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was awarded the 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.
Designed by Claire Vaccaro
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint the following: Excerpt from “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season),” words from the book of Ecclesiastes, adaption and music by Pete Seeger © 1962 (renewed) Melody Trails, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Melody Trails, Inc., 11 West 19th Street, New York, NY 10011.
A hardcover edition of this book was published in 2003 by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
MRS. KIMBLE.
Copyright © 2003 by Jennifer Haigh. 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.
ePub edition December 2004 eISBN 9780061749858
First Perennial edition published 2004.
The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows:
Haigh, Jennifer.
Mrs. Kimble: a novel / Jennifer Haigh.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-06-050939-2
1. Swindlers and swindling—Fiction. 2. Married women—Fiction. 3. Bigamy—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3608.A544 M77 2003
813’.6—dc21 2002070304
ISBN 0-06-050940-6 (pbk.)
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
55 Avenue Road, Suite 2900
Toronto, ON, M5R, 3L2, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com