Between Two Rivers

Oct 6, 2024 8:29 PM

Author:Nicholas Rinaldi

Between Two Rivers

Within the walls of Echo Terrace, the world...

Farro Fescu is the concierge of Echo Terrace, an apartment block in New York City. Passing through his lobby at all hours of the night and day is an exotic cross-section of the world's population: An Egyptian born plastic surgeon who lives on the fifth floor and specialises in gender reassignment; a fighter pilot, on the eighth floor, who flew for Nazi Germany during WWII; an Iraqi spice merchant and the world-famous crazy-patch quilter with whom he's having an affair; and the young widow whose apartment is a jungle Eden filled with a menagerie of specimens - finches, canaries, a defanged cobra, and a monkey named Joe - that had been the subject of her dead husband's research.

Fescu knows them all, knows all their secrets. He is keenly attuned to the building and the people in it, yet he does not know what is in his own heart - why, after a long, hard life, he is still alive, and still alone. Nor does he know of what he will be capable in the face of sudden, overwhelming tragedy...

Reviews

'In a city with eight million stories, this is one worth picking up'

—— The Wall Street Journal

'A rich, ambitious book ... Rinaldi conjures a cosmopolitan New York that is violent and tender'

—— The Economist

'Memorable ... richly textured ...paints a complex, compelling portrait of the ways we flirt with the American Dream'

—— People

'Geography is destiny in Nicholas Rinaldi's sprawling, elegant study.... [The] characters' histories collide with real world events and with one another'

—— New York Times Book Review

The writing is as ever fluid and pacey, the characterisation deft and the plot fresh and ingenious

—— Independent on Sunday

Atmospheric, hugely beguiling and as filled with tricks and sleights of hand as a magician's sleeve... this is English gothic at its eccentric best; a combination of Ealing comedy and grand opera: witty, charismatic, occasionally touching and with a genuine power to thrill

—— Joanne Harris

A writer of extraordinary imagination

—— Sunday Express

The striking gothic setting of London under fire proves fruitful ground for a bizarre dark comedy of an investigation... bawdy, unpredictable and at times hilarious, with a cast of wonderful grotesques

—— Maxim Jakubowski , Guardian

Fowler belongs with the mythographers of London: Iain Sinclair, Peter Ackroyd

—— New Statesman

Its combination of Grand Guignol and place setting does command attention

—— Metro London

Original, moving and entertaining for adults as well as for older children

—— Julia Donaldson , Daily Express

A deservedly acclaimed read.

—— Time Out London

Previous Article：The Drowning Tree Next Article：Thirteen Steps Down

Comments

Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.