I’m grateful for the people I’ve met at Hyperion: Leigh Haber, Ben Loehnen, Ellen Archer, and Bob Miller have been tirelessly enthusiastic and supportive. I also want to thank my agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, for taking a chance on a new writer.
Julie Daggett, Carolyn Doty, Tom Lorenz, Alice Lieberman, Amy Stuber, and Tina Schwarz read earlier drafts of this book and gave me thoughtful feedback. All of these people had their own work to do, and I appreciate the time they spent helping me.
I should also thank my mom, who paid more than a few months’ worth of student loan bills when things got dicey. And I’ve got to thank Mary Lamboley, who gave me her old car when she probably could have sold it. (I’m sad to say the car just gave out last summer, but it got me from Kansas to New Hampshire, no problem.)
It’s a wonderful thing to find pure generosity in people; I’ve been fortunate enough to find it many, many times.
PRAISE FOR THE CENTER OF EVERYTHING
“[Evelyn] is funny, smart and fiercely observant—we are left with the feeling that she is destined for great things.”
—Arizona Republic
“A winning first novel.”
—Allyssa Lee, Entertainment Weekly
“[An] intelligent and charming debut novel.”
—Elle
“This impressive debut is a marvelously satisfying story.”
—Christina Schwarz, author of Drowning Ruth
“Moriarty, a first-time novelist, has the steady confidence of a writer far more experienced.”
—San Diego Union-Tribune
“Laura Moriarty’s unsentimental novel makes us care for its striving heroine.”
—New York Daily News
“[A] Kansas-based story full of affection, humanity, wisdom…. Novelist Laura Moriarty knows that even if you’re living in what others call ‘the middle of nowhere,’ you’re still in the thick of things: your own life.”
—Kansas City Star
“The great strength of this debut novel is the wonderfully clear voice of its protagonist.”
—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Graceful and poignant.”
—Chicago Tribune
“The plot is absorbing and emotionally generous, and there’s no shortage of wry humor or evocative details of time and place.”
—Time Out New York
“A pleasantly wry, spunky debut…. Moriarty’s gutsy opener is hard not to like.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Moriarty has written a compassionate and insightful look at the trials and tribulations of growing up in blue-collar Middle America—a lovely, telling portrait of the often chaotic beauty of life around us.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“This is a book you won’t be able to put down and will think about long after you finish reading it.”
—Huntsville Times
“By the end of this beautifully evocative novel, we realize the paradox: Nothing and everything happens here. Evelyn’s voice illuminates the most mundane observations, turning the ordinary extraordinary.”
—Boston Globe
“A tender and wise coming-of-age story…”
—Boston Herald
“A true delight.”
—San Antonio Express-News
“A truly exceptional coming-of-age story, perfect for readers of all ages.”
—Booklist
Copyright
THE CENTER OF EVERYTHING. Copyright © 2003 Laura Moriarty. 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 Hyperion e-books.
Adobe Digital Edition June 2009 ISBN 978-1-4013-9459-2
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The Center of Everything Page 36
