Joshua Henkin is the author of the novels Swimming across the Hudson (a Los Angeles Times Notable Book) and Matrimony (a New York Times Notable Book). His new novel, The World Without You, from which this is an excerpt, comes out in June from Pantheon. His stories have been published widely, cited for distinction in Best American Short Stories, and broadcast on NPR's Selected Shorts. He directs the MFA Program in Fiction Writing at Brooklyn College.