by Alon Preiss
Over the course of those three decades, my personal thirtover period, many many people read some version of this book and encouraged me, and I thank you all. I would like to thank Steven S. Drachman, the publisher of Chickadee Prince Books, who suggested that I set a portion of this book at the Istanbul Film Festival (rather than Venice), and who shared his own recollections of the event; my old pal Mark Grinker, the best lawyer I ever met, whose help, comments and introductions were invaluable (I still mourn you, my friend); and of course, my beloved Isabel, this book’s very first reader, all those years ago.
For the rest of you, who are encountering this book for the first time, if you enjoyed my story, remember that Chickadee Prince Books, the publisher who brought this to you, is a small independent artists’ collective press devoted only to quality work, and it needs your word of mouth to survive. Please tell a friend and write a review on Amazon and Goodreads of this book or other CPB books.
Alon Preiss
October 2015
ALON PREISS’s NEW NOVEL NOW AVAILABLE
from CHICKADEE PRINCE BOOKS:
In Love with Alice: A Thirtover Novel by Alon Preiss
ISBN:9780991327454
A novel set among the New York city elite during the waning years of the 20th century, Alice tells the story of a young, almost-successful New York entrepreneur, trying to rebuild her life in the wake of a staggering financial failure, and in the shadow of her wealthy new husband, who rode to her rescue, whom she grudgingly loves, and who has more than a few secrets that he hopes she will never uncover. Like Preiss’s earlier work, Alice is at once a searingly personal tale, a funny and heartbreaking love story (or two, or three), and a sweeping, global satire of the 1980s.
Foreword Reviews praises the novel as “a complex, magical web of love, betrayal, and secrets that spans years and continents … at once dreamlike and prosaic, poetic and practical,” Clifford Garstang, the noted author of What the Zhang Boys Know and In an Uncharted Country (Press 53) calls Alice “a spellbinding love story that is both intimate and universal,” and Matthew C. Simpson, author of Rousseau, A Guide for the Perplexed (Bloomsbury) says, “Against the backdrop of New York’s social elite, Preiss explores the intensity and fragility of romantic love, and the search for fulfillment in a time of social and technological change. This a memorable and touching novel … A charming portrait of love and heartbreak.”
OTHER BOOKS YOU WILL ENJOY
from CHICKADEE PRINCE BOOKS:
Extraordinary Means by Donna Levin
At last, Donna Levin’s acclaimed and classic first novel is available again, on Kindle, and you can discover for yourself the story that the San Francisco Chronicle calls "an extraordinarily lively, funny novel!"
Meet Melissa Silverstein. She's twenty-four, witty, cynical, unemployed and unmarried, drifting through life, waiting for the action to start. And Melissa is in a coma. On the outside, she's a shell of a girl, but inside - well, her mind is churning. She's about to take you on a completely unexpected, hysterically funny and touching journey into the inner dreams of a modern-day American family.
Speaking of that family ... Dad hasn't come to visit her once. He's tied up in court trying to stop the hospital from pulling the plug. Every night, Mom's in the arms of Melissa's young doctor. Then there's her brother, Daniel. He's thinking about killing her. And a host of others - the two younger sisters, rabbis, old boyfriends, scheming aunts - are convinced that only they know what Melissa really wanted to do with her life ... and her death.
Melissa doesn't really know either, but for the first time, she's stopped drifting. And she's going to use all of her strength, all of her will, to figure out her place in this battling, loving, anxious, noisy family of hers.
Max’s Diamonds by Jay Greenfield
ISBN: 978-0991327409
A stunning decades-spanning debut novel, about a man forced to confront his moral culpability, the legacy of impossible loss, and the claims of his Jewish identity.
Paul Hartman, coming of age in postwar Rockaway, grows up haunted by the specter of his cousin Max, an Auschwitz survivor, and Max's mysterious cache of diamonds, which fund Paul’s Harvard Law education and even sparkle in his fiancée’s engagement ring. When a stranger from his past confronts him with an impossible demand, one that could destroy his law career, his marriage and his sense of self, Paul must make choices that will change his fate forever.
“[E]xamines the guilt of profiting from unsavory crimes during unthinkable times. Is it possible to squeeze the sleaze out of a particularly unsavory crime by using its proceeds to finance something positive? How big a role should that most irksome Jewish invention – the conscience – play in our lives? These two questions dangle over Max’s Diamonds like a literary sword of Damocles…. The most fascinating parts of this excellent book are the flashbacks to the Holocaust …. I couldn’t put it down.”
— Aaron Leibel, Jerusalem Post
“[I]ncredibly engaging and thought-provoking!”
— Tracy Fischer, Foreword Reviews