THE NOBODIES

Jess and Nina, Nina and Jess to everyone else they're typical best friends, sharing closeness and confidences in their own little world. But Nina and Jess have a secret. Simply by touching their foreheads together, they can swap bodies.

In Jess's assertive persona, self-conscious Nina turns bolder, free to say what she's frightened to voice on her own. Inhabiting Nina, Jess becomes part of the loving, stable family she craves.

Now, in crisis after her father's death, Jess has reentered Nina's life following a long separation. Once again they switch bodies, and their worlds begin to mesh. Each deceives the other, confesses, is forgiven. But how deeply can you sink into another's life before there's nothing left of you? Set against the vibrant backdrop of New York City, The Nobodies poses questions about the nature of intimacy, the many flavors of betrayal, and the value of female friendships.

Alanna Schubach's fiction has appeared in Shenandoah, the Sewanee Review, the Massachusetts Review, Electric Literature, and more. She was an Emerging Writer Fellow with the Center for Fiction, and a Fellow in Fiction with the New York Foundation for the Arts. She earned an MFA in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College. She lives in New York, where she works as a freelance journalist and writing teacher.