Copyright © 2002 by Steve Almond

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

Published simultaneously in Canada
Printed in the United States of America

FIRST PAPERBACK EDITION

The stories in this book have appeared in the following places: “My Life in Heavy Metal” and “How to Love a Republican,” Playboy; “Among the Ik,” Zoetrope: All-Story; “Geek Player, Love Slayer,” Missouri Review; “The Last Single Days of Don Viktor Potapenko,” Another Chicago Magazine; “Run Away, My Pale Love,” Ploughshares; “The Law of Sugar,” The Denver Quarterly; “The Pass,” New England Review; “Moscow,” North American Review; “Valentino,” Other Voices; “Pornography,” Boulevard; and “The Body in Extremis” in the anthology The Ex-Files.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Almond, Steve.

My life in heavy metal : stories / Steve Almond.

p. cm.

eBook ISBN-13: 978-1-5558-4789-0

1. Man-woman relationships—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3601.L58 M9 2002

813′.6—dc21 2001055638

DESIGN BY LAURA HAMMOND HOUGH

Grove Press

841 Broadway

New York, NY 10003