Laura Kasischke - The Raising

For the blessing of Lucy Abernethy, my beautiful, smart, strong stepdaughter.

For support above and beyond and over the years: Carrie Wilson, Eileen Pollack, Jill Elder, Nancy Gargano, Holly Abernethy, Andrea Beauchamp, Linda Gregerson, Pastor Doris Sparks, Laura Thomas, Debra Spark, Tony Hoagland, and Keith Taylor.

For trade secrets, fun talks, and being the best student ever, Sara Johnson-Cardona.

Thank you to the University of Michigan’s English Department and Residential College and my colleagues and students for generous support and inspiration of all sorts.

And for the perfect plot advice at the crucial moment, thanks to my extraordinary son and fellow writer, Jack Abernethy.

LAURA KASISCHKE teaches at the University of Michigan in the MFA program and the Residential College. She has published seven collections of poetry and eight novels. Her writing has won numerous awards, and two of her novels have been made into films. She lives with her family in Chelsea, Michigan.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.comfor exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

Fiction

In a Perfect World

Feathered

Be Mine

Boy Heaven

The Life Before Her Eyes

White Bird in a Blizzard

Suspicious River

Poetry

Lilies Without

Gardening in the Dark

Dance and Disappear

What It Wasn’t

Fire & Flower

Housekeeping in a Dream

Wild Brides

Cover design by Robin Bilardello

Cover photograph by Blasius Erlinger/Getty Images

Author photograph © Patrice Normand/Opale

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

THE RAISING. Copyright © 2011 by Laura Kasischke. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition March 2011 ISBN: 9780062042385

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kasischke, Laura, 1961–

The raising : a novel / Laura Kasischke.—1st ed.

p.cm.

ISBN 978-0-06-200478-9

1. Psychological fiction. I. Title.

PS3561.A6993S88 2011

813'.54—dc22

2010021605

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Australia

HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

25 Ryde Road (P.O. Box 321)

Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au

Canada

HarperCollins Canada

2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor

Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca

New Zealand

HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited

P.O. Box 1

Auckland, New Zealand

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz

United Kingdom

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

77-85 Fulham Palace Road

London, W6 8JB, UK

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk

United States

HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

10 East 53rd Street

New York, NY 10022

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com