They’re finishing it when he reaches for a plastic bag. Handing it to her, he explains, “So I got you a little something.”
Inside is a six-inch plastic action figure still in its original packaging: Adam Zoellner in the black robes from E&E: Rising’s first season. Not a particularly good rendering, the eyes are especially wrong, but the head shape is right and something about the set of his jaw.
“You got me a Captain Rowen action figure?” Sharon feels tears in her eyes.
She remembers how she used to feel locking herself in the bathroom and reading the comic books while she was babysitting. Not wanting to share the world with anyone, because it would somehow be less real. But this feels real.
Ollie’s hands are in the pockets of his khakis, and he slouches a little. “It’s dumb. I should have gotten flowers or something—”
“No.” She cuts him off. “This is the best gift ever.”
“You like it?”
“I love it.”
“I figured you’d be more into Rowen than Bryce or the Snow sisters.”
“Seriously, this is amazing,” she says.
He asks if she’s ready to go see the film, signals for the check, and helps her into her coat. It’s only a few blocks to the theater. Halfway there she takes his hand, and he smiles.
Maybe he’ll kiss her during the movie. Or maybe she’ll be the one to turn and lean into him. Perhaps they’ll be too engrossed and wait until the closing credits are rolling. It’s quite possible that the film won’t seem nearly as good as it did when she was fourteen and longed for anything other than the safety of suburbia, for some other universe. Maybe she and Oliver will be bored, leave early, and walk the four flights up to her apartment, where she’ll clear a space for them on her bed. Or perhaps she’ll end up not liking him nearly as much as she suspects she will. So many different potential outcomes, nothing but options, in this world and those just one or two away.
acknowledgments
I’d like to thank everyone at St. Martin’s Press, especially Katie Bassel and the incredibly insightful Laura Chasen, who has talked me down from a ledge or two.
Alex Glass is still my Jerry McGuire, and I am forever grateful to the amazing Jamie Beckman and her blue pencil.
Over the years a handful of people were kind enough to read this book in various incarnations, and I owe all of them drinks and thanks and cheese conies: Camille Sweeney, Diane Cardwell, Terri Goveia, Anna David, Taj Greenlee, Michael Ferrante, and Mandy Beisel. And a shout-out to all the wonderful writers I worked with at OSU and Northwestern, who always go above and beyond: Richard Ford, Michelle Herman, Lee K. Abbott, Lee Martin, Bill Roorbach, and Chris Coake.
Sometimes book stuff makes me grouchy, yet my family continues to put up with me. Thank you to my parents, Nancy and Michael Goldhagen, and sister, Jacqui Holland. And to my husband, Bob, and daughter, Victoria, who continually remind me what’s really important.
also by shari goldhagen
FAMILY AND OTHER ACCIDENTS
more praise for
IN SOME OTHER WORLD, MAYBE
“Shari Goldhagen writes with a special, effortless kind of magic—her characters (even when they’re movie stars) feel real: maddening and beguiling, funny and heartbreaking. This novel is a story about coincidence and connection, about lives spinning in and out of control over decades and across the globe, but it’s also about people who seem like friends, people we desperately want—no matter how badly they screw up—to turn out all right.”
—Christopher Coake, author of
You Came Back and
We’re in Trouble
“This is a wonderfully rich story of what might be and what might have been. Goldhagen writes with authority about show business and popular culture as she tells this ageless and all-too-human tale of the mistakes and the compromises that we all make for the sake of love. This book will entertain you, perhaps even titillate you, but above all it will touch your heart.”
—Lee Martin, author of
The Bright Forever and
Break the Skin
“In Some Other World, Maybe is a sprawling novel about growing up and setting off on your own, about going to Hollywood but remembering your beginnings. Goldhagen has given us memorable and appealing characters, and their stories all moved me. By the last page, I felt like we had become friends. I already miss them.”
—Christine Sneed, author of
Little Known Facts
“In Some Other World, Maybe is nothing less than an exploration of our hearts, the surprising places they lead us, the ways they break, and the infinite ways they can heal. And it is an absolute delight of a novel, spilling over with questions of fate and choice and characters so richly drawn and sympathetic that the loves and struggles of an interconnected group of men and women felt as real and as essential to me as my own. I read this book practically nonstop for four days straight. In Some Other World, Maybe hijacked my life and vaulted me completely into Shari Goldhagen’s world.”
—Lauren Fox, author of
Still Life with Husband and
Friends Like Us
“Ms. Goldhagen already, at a young age, is a fully self-possessed novelist, in command of large figurations, shrewd intelligence and wit, and a fine eye for the world and the American sentence.”
—Richard Ford
“In Some Other World, Maybe is a beautiful, haunting, insightful novel woven masterfully together. Goldhagen writes about the struggles of growing up, of relationships, of fame, celebrity, and the merging of the inner and outer worlds in a narrative so bullet-train fast, it’s nearly impossible to put down. And her characters are real and complex and subtly defined. In Some Other World, Maybe is funny as hell—and deeply profound.”
—Nic Sheff,
New York Times bestselling author of
Tweak and
We All Fall Down
“In Some Other World, Maybe beguiled me so much during recent flights that I forgot I was in the air! Engaging, entertaining, saucy, and poignant, this ingenious six-degrees-of-separation novel is one you’ll be so happy you read. So much fun.”
—Jenna Blum,
New York Times bestselling author of
Those Who Save Us and
The Stormchasers
“Shari Goldhagen brilliantly weaves together the lives of her characters into a tapestry that feels expertly crafted and, at the same time, satisfyingly human and real. This is a gem of a book, the kind that I will savor long after reading.”
—Cristina Alger, author of
The Darlings
“Shari Goldhagen is one of those remarkable writers whose work simultaneously captivates the mind and captures the heart, and it’s hard to know what to admire more in this beautifully written novel: the craftsmanship of the story—intricate and deliberate and finely formed as a well-made watch—or the messy, yearning, and wholly compelling characters who inhabit it. This is a book filled with people so flawed and funny and heartachingly familiar that, upon finishing, I felt that I was parting ways with a group of close and precious friends—I loved this novel.”
—Aryn Kyle, international bestselling author of
The God of Animals
“In Some Other World, Maybe makes the glamorous seem strikingly familiar and the mundane sparkle with new possibility. Goldhagen spins a lyrical saga that finds an unusual balance between hip and wise, with unforgettable and utterly human characters at its heart. I will not soon shake this book.”
—Jillian Lauren,
New York Times bestselling
author of
Some Girls and
Pretty
“In Some Other World, Maybe is funny and deft and moving and sweet, at least till it’s harrowing and disturbing and plain dangerous. It’s tender then explosive, sexy then raw, a dozen points of view coming together to tell a story no one character alone could possibly have a handle on. Shari Goldhagen is a writer of force and intelligence, humor and warmth, heart
and heartbreak, darkness and light, and this novel has it all.”
—Bill Roorbach, author of
Life Among Giants
praise for
FAMILY AND OTHER ACCIDENTS
“Real life with snappier dialogue … reminds you that simply paying attention is one of the things literature can do best.”
—
The New York Times Book Review
“Engrossing, beautifully written.”
—
People
“A lithe, living text … Goldhagen has charted a compelling, believable course of true brotherly love.”
—
San Francisco Chronicle
“Delicately mines the complexities of how loved ones seem close and far away—often at the same time—and how the smallest word uttered has the power to unravel or save.”
—
Entertainment Weekly
“Immensely assured.”
—
Booklist
“Unsentimental and emotionally riveting.”
—
Publishers Weekly
about the author
After serious pursuits of literature at Northwestern (B.S.J.) and Ohio State (M.F.A.), Shari Goldhagen discovered she had a knack for sifting through celebrity trash and worked as a gossip writer for several publications, including The National Enquirer, Us Weekly, and Life & Style Weekly. Her articles on pop culture, travel, and relationships have appeared everywhere from Cosmopolitan to Penthouse, and she has received fellowships from Yaddo and MacDowell. Shari currently lives in New York City with her husband and daughter. In Some Other World, Maybe is her second novel.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
IN SOME OTHER WORLD, MAYBE. Copyright © 2014 by Shari Goldhagen. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
“History of Flight” originally appeared in Prism International, Volume 41, Fall 2002.
Cover design by Kerri Resnick
Cover lettering © Angie Makes/Shutterstock.com; watercolor border © Alexander Tihonov/Shutterstock.com; silhouettes: bottom left © grynold/Shutterstock.com, top and middle right © Leremy/Shutterstock.com, top left © leigh/Shutterstock.com
eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Goldhagen, Shari, 1976–
In some other world, maybe: a novel / Shari Goldhagen.—First edition.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-250-04799-1 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-4829-0 (e-book)
I. Title.
PS3607.O45415 2015
813'.6—dc23
2014032132
e-ISBN 9781466848290
First Edition: January 2015
In Some Other World, Maybe: A Novel Page 32
