Shelf Awareness for Monday, June 21, 2010


Del Rey Books: The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Dial Press: Whoever You Are, Honey by Olivia Gatwood

Pantheon Books: The Volcano Daughters by Gina María Balibrera

Peachtree Publishers: Leo and the Pink Marker by Mariyka Foster

Wednesday Books: Castle of the Cursed by Romina Garber

Overlook Press: How It Works Out by Myriam LaCroix

Charlesbridge Publishing: If Lin Can: How Jeremy Lin Inspired Asian Americans to Shoot for the Stars by Richard Ho, illustrated by Huynh Kim Liên and Phùng Nguyên Quang

Shadow Mountain: The Orchids of Ashthorne Hall (Proper Romance Victorian) by Rebecca Anderson

News

Borders CFO Now COO, Too

Borders Group has made two more executive changes, the latest since Bennett LeBow made a major investment in the company last month and became chairman.

Mark Bierley has become chief operating officer and continues as chief financial officer. A Borders veteran, he started at the company as manager, store inventory control, in 1996, was promoted a year later to director of inventory control. He held several financial positions until being appointed executive v-p and CFO last year.

Borders CEO Mike Edwards called Bierley "an exceptional CFO in what has been a difficult and change-heavy environment at Borders. He's successfully led two financing programs that have strengthened the company's financial position and he's helped oversee the planning and execution of a number of key strategic initiatives. Mark is well respected in the financial community and has been vital in establishing ongoing positive relationships with our banking and vendor partners."

In addition, effective July 6, Rosalind (Roz) Thompson will become senior v-p, human resources. Thompson is a principal of Orange Hill Associates, which she founded in 207. Earlier she held executive HR positions at companies including Dots, Jo-Ann Stores, Lane Bryant, Lucky Supermarkets and Wallpapers to Go.

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Bloomberg BusinessWeek has tartly pointed out that LeBow's $25-million investment in Borders Group, made on May 21, has lost about 30% of its value.

Standard & Poor's analyst Michael Souers, who recommends selling Borders, told the magazine, "LeBow's background isn't in retail. Anytime you get management coming in from sectors that are completely different than what they are currently doing, there is a tendency for investors to second-guess that."

 


HarperOne: Amphibious Soul: Finding the Wild in a Tame World by Craig Foster


Notes: E-Reader Jostling; Favorite Customer Requests

While Amazon may currently have an edge in the e-book market, Citi analyst Mark Mahaney contends the Kindle "will invariably lose ground to Apple over time," Electronista reported. 

"It's hard to see why the gap won't narrow over time," he said, noting that the gap is closing fast for New York Times bestsellers. According to Electronista, "only half of the newspaper's bestseller list is available on both platforms, but even two months after the iBookstore's launch Apple has 63% of the list where the more established Kindle has 88%. About 80% of the list is the same price, and the average price of a Kindle book is only about one dollar less, $11.23 versus Apple's $12.31. Those that are less expensive on the Kindle are often only about 11% cheaper."

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Barnes & Noble's Nook accounted for 37% of all e-book reader shipments from manufacturers to vendors in April and May, when such shipments worldwide reached 740,000 units, according to Digitimes. Amazon's Kindle accounted for 16%.

The figures reflect a reduction in inventory at Amazon as the company "prepares for the launch of a new version of its e-book reader in July-August," Digitimes Research said.

From January through April, global e-book shipments totaled 1.43 million units.

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Deal Safrit, owner of the Literary Bookpost, Salisbury, N.C., wrote about "how I spent my May working vacation" at BookExpo America for the Salisbury Post.

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Bookshop globe for sale. For anyone still mourning the recent departure of Elliott Bay Book Company from its Pioneer Square location, the Seattle Times wrote that "now you can forever own a memento from the old store. This ancient world globe, available at the RE Store, used to frequent the window displays at Elliott Bay. With the store's recent move to Capitol Hill, staff couldn't find space for it, says store manager Tracey Taylor."

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As part of Independent Booksellers Week, U.K. booksellers are compiling a list of amusing and, well, "stupid" customer requests they have fielded over the years. Newslite.tv reported "our personal favourite is the teenager who wanted to return a copy of Douglas Adams's Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy--because it didn't even contain anything about Italy where she was going Euro-railing."

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The Guardian chronicled food writing's transition "from kitchen to bookshelf" during the past decade, tracing the roots of the dynamic rise in popularity for food writers back to Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, which "blew the idea that there was anything refined or effete about cooking for a living, and gave its entranced readers the kind of insider information that made them feel as though they had been initiated into the coolest gang on earth."

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Citing a series of current titles addressing issues dealt with better in older books, Nathan Ihara argued in an LA Weekly article called "The Tyranny of the New": "We are sold books the same way we are sold cell phones, as if the latest models deserve the most attention....  But all the middlemen along the way--the publishers, publicists, critics and book sellers--know the truth: The book they are hyping probably is not the book you ought to read, not even the book you would most enjoy reading. That book lies hidden in the back of the bookstore, or perhaps not even there. It is 10-, 20-, 35-years-old. However good it is, no one talks about it anymore. You might not have heard its title or its author's name."

There is a possible solution, he continued: "The Internet has made it so that old reviews and rare titles are now easily available at the click of a button; Amazon's preference algorithms bypass the single-mindedness of the display table to unearth literary treasures suited to your taste ("You may be interested to know that Knut Hamsen's Growth of the Soil Vol. 2 is available."); the lively world of web litblogs, free from the pressures of journalism, promote books from all time periods (for example, the online literary magazine thesecondpass.com offers spirited reviews of older works) and neglectedbooks.com contains essential gleanings from our literary amnesia; and the rise of eReaders and the iPad eliminate printing costs, making it possible for publishers to sell easily across their backlist."

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Former Coliseum Books owner George Leibson and other friends and family of the late Jack Rosenblatt have helped get the former bookseller's novel, Neighborhood Boys Who Ran, "self-published," the New York Times reported. The press is Splash'em.

Leibson, who passed around copies at BookExpo America, commented: "We'd love to find another one on his computer. But if people in the city find this book and like it, great. To me, it's basically like Jack sitting there with a glass of Scotch in hand and telling a story."

 


Park Street Press: An Autobiography of Trauma: A Healing Journey by Peter A Levine


Obituary Note: José Saramago

José Saramago, the Portuguese writer who won the Nobel Prize in 1998, died at his home in the Canary Islands at age 87.

In its long obituary, the New York Times said that his novels, including Baltasar and Blimunda and Blindness, "combine surrealist experimentation with a kind of sardonic peasant pragmatism." He was also known "almost as much for his unfaltering Communism as for his fiction."

Saramago attributed his late-blooming writing career to losing his job in 1975, after the Communist Party lost its brief hold on power following the Carnation Revolution. "Being fired was the best luck of my life," he told the New York Times Magazine. "It made me stop and reflect. It was the birth of my life as a writer."

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Mariner have published most of Saramago's titles in the U.S. The Elephant's Journey will be released in September.

In April, Verso Books published The Notebook, a journal of sorts covering a year in the author's life.

We remember vividly that in 1998, the Nobel Prize for Literature was announced during the Frankfurt Book Fair. Saramago had been attending but was on his way home and about to board a flight at the airport when he was told he had won. He returned to the fair, where organizers quickly set up a press conference that was jammed with journalists from around the world, but especially Portuguese and Spanish reporters and camera crews. It was bedlam. Unfazed, Saramago stood in front of the crowd and fielded a mix of thoughtful and inane questions, some of which he deigned not to answer. He was "a tall, commandingly austere man with a dry, schoolmasterly manner," just as the Times described him. We were lucky to see the performance.

 


G.P. Putnam's Sons: Take Me Home by Melanie Sweeney


Coop Tour Part VI: Laundry Done!

Michael Perry, author of Coop, reports from his road trip:

First things first: Yep, got the laundry done. I found a fine, gleaming facility in a strip mall. The owner was cheery and helpful and acted like running a Laundromat was a joyous appointment. Maybe that's why the place was full. You see a guy like that and you think you better dial back the grumping for a week or so.

Happily, I, too, view my vocation as an avocation and am eager to rat-a-tat the keyboard at any given opportunity and so, surrounded by the balmy scent of fabric softener, I set up my little office.

Got a nice little patch of work done before it was time to do the folding.

As I was leaving the Laundromat, out of the corner of my eye I noticed something atop the washing machine.

Yah. That's my wallet.

Bathed in the chill-sweat of a close call, I set off for Manchester Center, Vt., and Northshire Bookstore (with a quick sneaky little drop-in at Battenkill Books in Cambridge, N.Y. as the result of felicitous geography and a Facebook request). Before the reading, I met with Robert Gray, who was kind enough to buy me lunch and endure my logorrhea. Robert is an author, an instructor, a blogger, major Shelf Awareness contributor and a man who understands the art of bookselling. He used to work at Northshire Bookstore and was one of the many independent bookstore employees who helped my first book (Population 485) find its legs. After our visit, I felt remorseful, as I had pretty much babbled nonstop. I tend to do this. I am for the most part a happy loner, content to hole up for days on end and talk to no one, especially when coffee and a keyboard are available. But perhaps because I spend so much time in my own head, when I do wind up across a table from someone who understands both writing and the book trade (they are distinct endeavors), well, that's a chance to talk shop, and I frankly prattle. Still, I did manage to stop jacking my jaw long enough to learn a thing or two from Robert (among other things I will be investigating the work of David Markson).

The last time I read at Northshire Bookstore (2003? 2004?) it was a closet-like structure and the wind outside was blowing so that trees came down around my motel. In June 2010 the air was hot, still and humid, and the bookstore now was in a multi-level complex. The reading was up the broad wrought-iron stairs, and among those in attendance was a man named John who works in the world of trucking but still finds time to enjoy poetry and is working on his memoirs. I admit I am partial to cosmopolitanism when it is shod in steel-toed boots, and it was good to shake the hand of a man who comfortably occupies two worlds.

Northshire Bookstore is the kind of place that gives you hope, what with the expansion and the vibrant staff (skewing younger than I, although that particular measuring stick is becoming ever more inclusive and therefore less and less useful), and they sent me on my way in good cheer. On the way out I enjoyed a surprise discussion with an employee of HarperCollins. He promised to take my best wishes back to New York when he returned. In particular I asked him to greet my editor, a woman who frankly saved my literary life during the composition of Coop. It is one of the benign oddities of the writing life that my editor and I have never met. Nor have I ever met my publicist, Meredith, a woman who was given the unthinkable job of arranging the logistics and shepherding me from stop to stop by remote control, a real short-straw assignment in light of the fact that I am the type of guy who is likely to wander off and leave his wallet atop a coin-operated washing machine.

Back in the rental car I consulted the detailed itinerary Meredith composed for me. A week and a few state lines to go yet. It's a good gig, this book tour business, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Lucky to be here. Still, out behind the bookstore, darkness was falling over the bulk of Mount Equinox and I was missing my family. I dialed the cell phone and held it to my ear, the glow of the screen illuminating half my face. My wife answered, and in the background I heard the voices of children, and we had a nice visit, just catching up, nothing dramatic, and then with my heart recharged, I backed from the lot and drove on.

Me and that Laundromat guy, we got a good thing going.

 


Media and Movies

Media Heat: Raquel Welch Goes Beyond the Cleavage

Today on Oprah: Raquel Welch, author of Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage (Weinstein Books, $26.95, 9781602860971/1602860971).

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Today on the View: Jay Mohr, author of No Wonder My Parents Drank: Tales from a Stand-Up Dad (Simon & Schuster, $25, 9781439173213/1439173214).

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Tonight on the Colbert Report: Wes Moore, author of The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates (Spiegel & Grau, $25, 9780385528191/0385528191).

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Tonight on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson: William Knoedelseder, author of I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-up Comedy's Golden Era (PublicAffairs, $24.95, 9781586483173/158648317X).

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Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Lisa Lillien, author of Hungry Girl Happy Hour: 75 Recipes for Amazingly Fantastic Guilt-Free Cocktails and Party Foods (St. Martin's, $14.99, 9780312621032/0312621035).

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Tomorrow morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe: Jonathan Alter, author of The Promise: President Obama, Year One (Simon & Schuster, $28, 9781439101193/1439101191).

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Tomorrow morning on Imus in the Morning: Glenn Beck, author of The Overton Window (Threshold Editions, $26, 9781439184301/1439184305).

 


Twilight, the Moon & a Vampire Movie or Two

Twi-hards in select U.S. cities will have the opportunity to see the first two Twilight films--based on Stephenie Meyer's bestselling vampire novel series--at free outdoor screenings June 26, on the night of a lunar eclipse. The Wrap reported that "celestial occurrences don't usually play a prominent role in film advertising," but Summit Entertainment and AOL Media are partnering for "Twilight Night" to promote the June 30 release of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

AOL's Moviefone will also offer a live-stream of "the events taking place in Philadelphia and San Diego, through AOL's Moviefone. The live-stream will also include interviews with the cast and a sneak peek of Eclipse," according to the Wrap. The other lunar eclipse screening cities are Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Miami, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, St. Louis, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

 


Movies: Ready Player One; The Social Network

Warner Bros. has acquired film rights to Ready Player One, Ernie Cline's debut sci-fi novel. Variety reported the studio had "attached Donald De Line to produce with Cline's manager Dan Farah. Sale of the property to Warner closed late Friday after it topped bids from Paramount, a day after Random House won the book publishing rights for North America."

Cline will adapt the book, "in which a teen protagonist escapes his bleak life in an idyllic virtual world called Oasis. He then finds himself competing in a treasure hunt against ruthless foes after the game's founder dies and offers his fortune as the grand prize." Variety noted that the project has been described as Avatar meets The Matrix meets Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

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News flash from an unlikely source: Facebook has 500 million users, maybe. Although the company itself hasn't announced its arrival at this magic number, TechCrunch did a bit of Holmesian deduction based on the recent release of a movie poster for director David Fincher's The Social Network, which was adapted for the screen by Aaron Sorkin from Ben Mezrich's book, The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal.

TechCrunch said that the "poster, which features a close-up of actor Jesse Eisenberg (who is playing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg), features the tagline 'You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.' Intriguing--but is it accurate? The latest numbers on Facebook's press site say the network has 'more than 400 million active users'--this echoes what Zuckerberg said in a post in February. In late May, that number was pegged at 450 million, but third-party statistics suggest it was already closer to 500 million." 

 


Books & Authors

IndieBound: Other Indie Favorites

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcover

Leaving Rock Harbor: A Novel by Rebecca Chace (Scribner, $25, 9781439141304/1439141304). "Tightly written, this is a novel full of love, rich New England history, and a vivid description of a New England mill town's economic troubles in the wake of World War I. Frankie Ross, an independent, stubborn young woman tells us her story of loving two men, one of wealthy, upper middle class privilege and the other a Portuguese mill worker. An engaging read, and not just for New Englanders!"--Annie Philbrick, Bank Square Books, Mystic, Conn.

Where's My Wand? One Boy's Magical Triumph Over Alienation and Shag Carpeting
by Eric Poole (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam, $24.95, 9780399156557/0399156550). "Eric Poole casts a magical spell with his coming-of-age memoir complete with a neurotic mother, rampant bullying, and an on-again, off-again relationship with God. In turns both endearing and hysterical, Poole is sure to charm."--Meaghan Beasley, Island Bookstore, Corolla, N.C.

Paperback

Where We Going, Daddy? Life with Two Sons Unlike Any Other
by Jean-Louis Fournier (Other Press, $12, 9781590513385/159051338X). "This charming, bittersweet and thought-provoking memoir of the author's life with two handicapped sons is exquisitely wrought and strikingly honest. Highly recommended!"--Carol Schneck, Schuler Books & Music, Okemos, Mich.

For Ages 9 to 12

Nice and Mean by Jessica Leader (Aladdin, $6.99, 9781416991601/1416991603). "This is the story of two girls from opposite sides of the proverbial tracks (or boroughs, since this is set in New York City) who are paired together for a video project that makes both girls look a little inside themselves to see what's truly important. Well-written, insightful and a lot of fun to read!"--Andy Terrell, Destinations Booksellers, New Albany, Ind.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]


Hugh Rowland: Shaken, Not Stirred

On second thought, Hugh Rowland wouldn't be a martini--he's a beer, a very cold beer. Rowland, aka "The Polar Bear," is one of the stars of History Channel's hit show Ice Road Truckers, and has just written a book (with Michael Lent) about his life and experiences being both frozen and shaken in On Thin Ice: Breakdowns, Whiteouts, and Survival on the World's Deadliest Roads (Hyperion, $24.99, 9781401323684/1401323685, June 8, 2010).

Rowland drives trucks across the richest real estate (diamonds, natural gas, gold) on the planet--the far, far Northwest Territories. There are approximately two months out of the year when needed supplies and equipment can be trucked in to the sites, which is eight times cheaper than flying them in. The kicker: it's done on roads built anew each year over frozen lakes and muskeg. It's dangerous--people die every year both constructing the roads and driving on them. Rowland's book chronicles his life from the time he was an 11-year-old working in construction, parlaying his pay into cows, selling them and then buying a brand-new truck when he was 12, to his current job. A born entrepreneur and hard worker--bull riding, brawling, taking risks and going after the tough jobs--Rowland is pretty darn impressive. He explains ice road construction (and attendant environmental concerns) and driving the roads, with the dangers of avalanches, blizzards and breaking ice. "Page-turner" is an overused phrase, but perfect for On Thin Ice. We were excited that Rowland could take some time to talk about the book--in a bar over a few Alaskan Ambers, of course.

The book opens with all the ways a person can die when crashing through the ice. Chilling, pardon the pun.

Yeah, no one whose truck has gone under has ever been rescued.

I've lost 35 friends and relatives to the ice. Most of the truckers who've gone down--it was due to neglect, to lack of attention, to speeding. You have to listen to the ice--that's why I keep my window down even if it's 60 below. You have to hear it cracking and popping--it's breaking and reforming new ice as you drive--you can't not pay attention. Silent ice is dangerous ice. You can't speed. When you're on ice, you're pushing the water underneath in front of you--go too fast and the water will pick up enough momentum to break through the ice. Then you've had it.

Why did you write the book?

I was promoting the TV series, and thinking that it didn't show the way things really went down, and on some talk shows people would tell me that I should write a book. So instead of getting pissed off about what the show was saying about me and the other truckers, I decided to write about it.

How is the show filmed?

There's a camera in the cab trained on the driver and a camera on the dash, which is handy for filming the crashes into snow banks and ditches. Plus there is a chase vehicle, also handy for the crashes, truck breakdowns, and for the wildlife--caribou, wolves, polar bears, musk ox.

How are the truckers picked? They get tested for drugs, but then do you just wait for them to make it or wash out?

In Dalton, there's orientation classes and simulation driving. But in the NWT, you get orientation and off you go. If you screw up, you're gone. You do drive with another truck, but it's illegal to drive with someone else in the cab; it's also illegal to drive over the ice roads wearing a seatbelt. That's bad if you go into the windshield, but good if you crash though the ice--it makes it easier for the rescue team to pull out your body.

I get over 400 requests from people from all over the world each summer who want to drive one of my four trucks, but with work permits and visas, only a few have a chance of trying out. And only a few Canadians want to try it.

The TV show portrays you and the other drivers as rivals, and it's good drama, but in your book the conflict is with the conditions, not people. Has the show changed the ice-trucking business?

The personalities get amplified for the show; in reality, it's all about teamwork. You head out with at least one other trucker at all times, and any rivalry is pretty friendly. Of course there will always be guys who piss you off, but it has to stay friendly, or else you'd kill somebody.

On the show, I'm gruff and profane. Well, yeah, I can be gruff, I am profane, but I'm friends with everybody, not a rival. The show hasn't changed the business, but it has changed the people who want to drive.

So you haven't been an ice trucker your whole life?

I've done a lot of other things, but I've been in this for over 30 years. I spent 15 years building ice roads, and 18 years driving them. But the rest of the year, I do other trucking and construction. I'm always working.

Because of all the experience I have driving, I do the snow stunt driving for the show--running into snow banks, sliding, swinging trailers into ditches.

Your wife, Dianne, likes to read Stephen King and Dean Koontz in the winter when you're away, so she must have a high fear tolerance. Has watching the TV show made your time away more difficult for her?

Yes, it definitely has. She and the kids knew what I did, but didn't really have a clue what it was like. One of my daughters, after seeing the first show, said, "Oh my god, dad, you shouldn't be doing that! You're crazy!"

You say in the book, "I love being out on the ice. It gets my blood pumping. I feel alive." How much longer will you do this?

'Til I'm not having fun anymore.--Marilyn Dahl




Book Review

Book Review: A Fierce Radiance

A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer (Harper, $25.99 Hardcover, 9780061252518, June 2010)



Lauren Belfer does not traffic in small subjects. Her first novel, City of Light, took on the electrification of New York after the power of Niagara Falls was harnessed. In A Fierce Radiance, she captures the period in 1941 when penicillin, having languished for years after its discovery by Sir Alexander Fleming, a Scottish biologist, is needed at the front to treat those wounded in World War II. Penicillin later became a drug that saved millions of lives, effective against gangrene and even tuberculosis. At the time Belfer writes about, the government and big pharma are all chasing that elusive moment when mass production will be possible.

Belfer uses the same device as in City of Light, centering the story on an appealing heroine. This time it's Claire Shipley, 36-year-old divorced mother of a young son and first-rate photographer for Life magazine. Claire's daughter, Emily, died eight years earlier of septicemia, so she is immediately drawn to the story of any medication that might have saved her child. She is assigned to take pictures at the Rockefeller Institute, recording the nonstop efforts of doctors and scientists to develop life-saving antibiotics. There is the rush to create a stable and plentiful penicillin, and then there are "the cousins," compounds that are related but can be patented. The government has refused to issue any patents for penicillin, stating that it is needed exclusively for use at the front. No one may profit from it. This sets up a race among profiteers, unscrupulous scientists and unwitting accomplices to find the magic formula that will be a cash cow for years to come.

Claire is attracted to one of the research doctors, Jamie Stanton, and he returns her feelings. Then Jamie is sent to the front to conduct penicillin trials on the war wounded. This is where the subplots take over. Jamie's sister, Tia, has died in a strange accident--or was she murdered? One of Jamie's friends, less of an idealist than others at the Institute, might be responsible. Or it might be the Russian who collected sewage to study. And what happened to the promising sample that Tia was working on, the one with the radiant, indescribably blue color? Claire's father, from whom she has been estranged for many years, enters the picture. He is a millionaire who buys a pharmaceutical company to join the race for the valuable drug. Then there is a New York police detective lurking around the edges of the story whose dogged perseverance leads to discoveries that move him front and center at critical moments.

All these story lines are tied up to the reader's satisfaction and in every one of them there is a common thread: there are shades of gray everywhere in judging the morality of human actions. All of Belfer's characters must come to terms with this truth, in themselves and in others. Belfer exempts no one, and in so doing creates a believable story and recreates a forgotten time in our history.--Valerie Ryan

Shelf Talker: Set in New York in 1941, this is a story of penicillin, with love, murder, greed, the end of an estrangement and the beginning of the new medications destined to be lifesavers.

 


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