The baby starts to cry because her sister is on top of her and holding on to her too tightly and I pick her up and then her sister starts to cry because her sister’s being held and she wants to be held too and also her sister is the only one who got any presents and birthdays aren’t fair and someone stole the frosting off her cake and now there isn’t any more. I lean over to lift her too, but my mom gets to her first and holds her in her arms.
I turn toward her and I smile. The four-year-old grabs hold of my mom’s face and presses her cheeks inward. The now three-year-old leans her hot cheek against mine and I say, Thanks.
ALSO BY LYNN STEGER STRONG
Hold Still
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LYNN STEGER STRONG’S first novel, Hold Still, was released by Liveright/W. W. Norton in 2016. Her nonfiction has been published in The Paris Review, The Cut, Guernica, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Elle.com, Catapult, Literary Hub, and elsewhere. She teaches both fiction and nonfiction writing. Or sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Also by Lynn Steger Strong
About the Author
Copyright
WANT. Copyright © 2020 by Lynn Steger Strong. All rights reserved. For information, address Henry Holt and Co., 120 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10271.
www.henryholt.com
Cover design by Jaya Miceli
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Strong, Lynn Steger, 1983– author.
Title: Want: a novel / Lynn Steger Strong.
Description: First edition. | New York, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2020.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019040523 (print) | LCCN 2019040524 (ebook) | ISBN 9781250247544 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781250247537 (ebook)
Classification: LCC PS3619.T7785 W36 2020 (print) | LCC PS3619.T7785 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019040523
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019040524
e-ISBN 9781250247537
First Edition: June 2020
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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
