Portions of this novel appeared in altered form in the New Yorker (July 18, 1988) as “The Grammar of Love”; in Wigwag (February 1990) and in Writing our Way Home (Schocken Books 1992) and in Coming of Age in America: A Multicultural Anthology (The New Press 1994) and in Growing Up Jewish (William Morrow 1996) and also in An Introduction to Critical Reading (Harcourt Brace 1999) as “Where is it Written”; in the New Yorker (June 22, 1992) as “This Bed” and in Doubletake (Winter 1996) as “Dancing with Earl.”

Copyright © 2011 by Adam Schwartz

All rights reserved.

Published by

Soho Press, Inc.

853 Broadway

New York, NY 10003

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Schwartz, Adam, 1956—

A stranger on the planet : a novel / Adam Schwartz.

p. cm.

eISBN 978-1-56947-869-1

1. Mothers and sons—Fiction. 2. Mentally ill parents—Fiction. 3. Family secrets—Fiction. 4. Domestic fiction. I. Title.

PS3619.C48555S77 2011

813’.6—dc22

2010032477

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1