The Wilding: A Novel

by Benjamin Percy

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks—a million times over—to Graywolf. This novel went though the editorial wringer—and its evolution from first to final draft was truly a collaborative process. Thanks for your patience, your thoughtfulness, and your support. I’m so damn lucky to be part of the pack.

  Thanks to Katherine Fausset, my first reader, my first line of defense, my pal, and my advocate.

  Thanks so much to Alison Granucci and Ofer Ziv at Blue Flower Arts.

  Thanks to the Whiting Foundation for the generous support that helped me complete this manuscript. Thanks also to the Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities and the mini-grant program at Iowa State University.

  Thanks to Dean Bakopoulos, my boozing buddy, my cross-eyed colleague, my partner in crime. We’ll always have Murfreesboro. To Bret Anthony Johnston and Paul Yoon and Laura van den Berg and Josh Weil. To Helen Schulman and Peter Straub. Thanks to James Ponsoldt for his friendship and passion and our storytelling alliance. Thanks to Danica Novgorodoff for her extraordinary artwork and collaboration.

  Thanks to Debra Marquart, Steve Pett, Mary Swander, David Zimmerman, Barbara Hass, Charlie Kostelnick, Dave Roberts, Linda Shenk, and all of my colleagues at Iowa State for their support and for hiring me despite my ugliness and crabbiness and half-baked talent. Thanks also to Shelley Washburn and my colleagues at the low-residency program at Pacific University. And thanks to all of my students, too, for their hunger and eagerness and inspiring talent.

  Thanks to Nat Rich and Philip Gourevitch at the Paris Review—and thanks to Tyler Cabot and Tom Chiarella and David Granger at Esquire—and Kevin Larimer at Poets & Writers—for their continued support of my work. Thanks to Amazing Stories and American Short Fiction—in which sections of this novel appeared in different forms.

  Thanks to Dan Levine for his friendship and his early comments on the manuscript. And for jumping out of a plane with me. Thanks to Abi and Jeremy Solin, Jeremy Chamberlin, Ron Mitchell, Dan Wickett, Steve Gillis, Matt Bell, Alan Heathcock, Oliver Tatom, Jim Boggs, Becky Broderick, Ellen Waterston. Thanks to Michael Collier and the staff at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.

  Thanks to my parents, Peter and Susan, and my sister, Jen, for their love and support. To my uncle Dave and aunt Cynthia. To my in-laws, Lynn and Dave, and all the rest of the Dummer and Spielman clans.

  The biggest thanks of all goes to my beautiful wife, Lisa, who told me—so many years ago—“You should be a writer.” To which I replied, “Okay.” That’s why this book, why all the books, are dedicated to you, Chief.

  BENJAMIN PERCY is the author of The Language of Elk and Refresh, Refresh. His honors include the Plimpton Prize, a Pushcart Prize, a Whiting Writers’ Award, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories. His fiction and nonfiction have been published by Esquire, Men’s Journal, the Paris Review, and Orion. He teaches in the MFA program in creative writing and environment at Iowa State University.

  Table of Contents

  Cover Page

  Half Title Page

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter 1: Justin

  Chapter 2: Brian

  Chapter 3: Justin

  Chapter 4: Karen

  Chapter 5: Brian

  Chapter 6: Justin

  Chapter 7: Brian

  Chapter 8: Justin

  Chapter 9: Brian

  Chapter 10: Justin

  Chapter 11: Brian

  Chapter 12: Justin

  Chapter 13: Karen

  Chapter 14: Justin

  Chapter 15: Brian

  Chapter 16: Justin

  Chapter 17: Karen

  Chapter 18: Justin

  Chapter 19: Brian

  Chapter 20: Justin

  Chapter 21: Brian

  Chapter 22: Justin

  Chapter 23: Paul

  Chapter 24: Karen

  Chapter 25: Justin

  Chapter 26: Paul

  Chapter 27: Justin

  Chapter 28: Brian

  Chapter 29: Justin

  Chapter 30: Brian

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author