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Nine Nails: A Novel in Essays

This is the story of the decline of a marriage and of a woman, stepping out of the ashes—not quite a Phoenix yet, but dusting off her wings from the fire of an anguished, codependent love. It is the story of betrayal, infidelity, illness, addiction and loss. It is also a story of hope and, most of all, of personal resilience.

Author: T. Nicole Cirone
Paperback : 168 pages
ISBN-10 : 1947175122
ISBN-13 : 978-1947175129

About the Author

T Nicole Cirone lives next door to her parents in Upper Darby, PA, with her teenaged daughter and two very literary cats. Ms. Cirone is an English teacher and a yoga instructor. Her work has appeared in several literary journals, including Serving House Journal, Ovunque Siamo: A Journal of Italian-American Writing, Hippocampus, Perigee, Red River Review and Philadelphia Stories; and in three anthologies: The Best of Philadelphia Stories Anthology, Reaching Beyond the Saguaros: A Prosimetric Travelogue and Gateways. She is also a prose reader for The Literary Review. Ms. Cirone holds undergraduate degrees in Italian Studies and Political Science and an MA in English from Rosemont College, and a dual-concentration MFA in Creative Writing Poetry and Creative Non-Fiction from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Nine Nails is a haunting travelogue of courtship and marriage. “Today,” Cirone writes in her vows, “I am marrying my best friend”—what better promise of happiness? She captures, in aching clarity, the resiliency of the human heart and the fragilities of a compromised mind. She’s written for us a chronicle of love, both beautiful and horrifying—and she’s done so with a clear eye and with compassion. A heartbreaking work of hope and generosity.

—Renée Ashley, author of Minglements

In Nine Nails, Nicole Cirone accomplishes what’s wonderful: a candid, charming, ultra-readable three dimensional account of a dreadfully complicated love. She dives in with heart and courage, and unflinching perspective. With every dramatic misstep, it’s almost impossible not to tremble with resonance and empathy—who hasn’t, somehow, loved badly too.

—Minna Zallman Proctor, author of Landslide: True Stories

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