In Merle Unzicker’s session notes, there was this line—the very first entry:
A reports a night of wildness with a young man, whom she believes is named Jamie.
That was me. Jamie.
I did not remember the girl or the night until I read those stolen shrink notes.
Then I remembered. She told me her name was A.
I’m just the punch line of a great cosmic joke. I can’t shake this idea. It haunts me.
I’m killing this mailbox.
See you in 2020, maybe? 25th reunion. Christ, we’re old.
ABBY, JANUARY 21, 2017
The day after the inauguration was cold and clear. The crowds thronged the Ringstrasse and the chants and drums echoed off the old yellow palaces. Many marchers wore pink hats. I wore black.
Most of the women were young. Their faces, so open, so dazzling. So full of promise and passion and anger. I found myself thrilled by them. Entranced. My pulse revved. There was one in particular, I followed her for a while. I saw some familiar shading in her, but then she turned my way, and no. A beautiful being, bright and alive. Still I couldn’t quite place her. I guess she just looked like someone I used to know.
Acknowledgments
I cocreated this work with countless others, seen and unseen, people whom I now know only as part of my distant past, and people who live very vividly in my present. In profound gratitude, I must name at least a few. For fierceness and guidance of all kinds: Soumeya Benderimad Roberts. For transforming my strange fleeting vision into a book: Megan Lynch, Helen Atsma, Miriam Parker, Sara Birmingham, Martin Wilson, Sonya Cheuse, Meghan Deans, and the talented staff at Ecco/HarperCollins. For essential writings that helped shape my imaginings: Josef Albers (whose seminal book Interaction of Color is quoted in these pages), Rudolf Arnheim, Anne Truitt, Mark Bray, and Brian Greene. For allowing me into their minds and studios: Franklin Evans, Elizabeth Meyersohn, Sebastiaan Bremer, Margot Glass, Susannah Auferoth. For support and solitude, the generous benefactors of the MacDowell Colony. For sparkling inspiration and endless encouragement: Ann Lewis and Edie Meidav. For early reading, kindness, faith, and love: Deborah Legge Lewis, Kahane Corn Cooperman, Kandy Littrell, Miliann Kang, Mic Farquharson, James Hynes, Mimi Mayer, Alison Smith, Michael Ravitch, Nerissa Nields, Sandra Scofield, the Immergut and Marks families. For all of these things and more, always, John and Joe Marks.
About the Author
DEBRA JO IMMERGUT is the author of the Edgar-nominated novel The Captives and the story collection Private Property. She has been awarded a MacDowell fellowship and a Michener fellowship. Her literary work has been published in American Short Fiction and Narrative. As a journalist, she has been a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe. She has an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
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Also by Debra Jo Immergut
Private Property
The Captives
Copyright
YOU AGAIN. Copyright © 2020 by Debra Jo Immergut. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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 hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Cover design by Jennifer Carrow
Cover photographs © Heidi Yount/Getty Images
FIRST EDITION
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Immergut, Debra Jo, author.
Title: You again: a novel / Debra Jo Immergut.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY: Ecco, [2020] | Summary: “From Edgar Award nominee Debra Jo Immergut: A taut, twisting work of psychological suspense about a woman chasing down the ghosts of her past”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019050694 (print) | LCCN 2019050695 (ebook) | ISBN 9780062747587 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780062747570 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780062747600 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Psychological fiction. | GSAFD: Suspense fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3559.M5 Y68 2020 (print) | LCC PS3559.M5 (ebook) | DDC 813/.54--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019050694
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019050695
* * *
Digital Edition JULY 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-274760-0
Version 04292020
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-274758-7
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