A Guide to Being Born

RIVERHEAD BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group

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Published simultaneously in Canada

The following stories have been previously published in slightly different form: “Atria” (The New Yorker), “Poppyseed” (FiveChapters), “Safe Passage” (One Story and Best American Fantasy 2009), “Saver” (pax americana), “Snow Remote” (Slice magazine), “The Ages” (Orange Coast Review), “Tributaries” (Electric Literature), “Welcome to Your Life and Congratulations” (Green Mountains Review)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ausubel, Ramona.

[Short stories. Selections]

A guide to being born / Ramona Ausubel.

p. cm

ISBN 978-1-101-61461-7

I. Title.

PS3601.U868G85 2013 2013002037

813'.6—dc23

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.