The last four things

379 Pages·2011·2.437 MB·English

by  Paul Hoffman

T H E
L A S T F O U R
T H I N G S
Paul Hoffman
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THE LAST FOUR T HINGS
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By the same author
The Left Hand of God
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DDUUTTTTOONN
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T H E
L A S T F O U R
T H I N G S
Paul Hoffman
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DUTTON

Published by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3,

Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.);

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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published in Great Britain by Michael Joseph, a division of Penguin Books, Ltd.

Published by Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Copyright © 2011 by Paul Hoffman

All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

has been applied for

ISBN 978-1-101-54052-7

Set in Adobe Caslon

Designed by Spring Hoteling

PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This book 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,
business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any
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materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
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For Richard Gollner

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THE LAST FOUR T HINGS
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Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and
my own specific world to bring them up in, and I’ll
guarantee to take any one at random and train him
to become any type of specialist I might select—a
doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even
into a beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents,
penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations and race
of his ancestors.
J. B. Watson, Psychologies of 1925
I fought like an angel.
Wilfred Owen
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