Fiction
FICTION
NONFICTION
A WEDDING IN GREAT NECK
(New American Library, October 2012)
In the spirit of Cathleen Schine’s best books, A WEDDING IN GREAT NECK is an effervescent yet deep story about family and the ways which the powerful ties that bind us can also cut us off and keep us apart.
Taking place in a single day, WEDDING follows the Silverstein clan as they come together for nuptials of the youngest daughter, Angelica. Angelica is the family’s golden girl—intelligent, beautiful and accomplished, she is both everyone’s favorite, and the object of much envy and resentment. She has planned a fairy tale wedding to her Israeli fiancé—a former fighter pilot—and is determined to have everything go perfectly. But things do not go according to plan, and there are complications, dramas and confrontations at every turn.
Gretchen, the older Silverstein sister, is there with her twin fifteen year old daughters, one of whom is skirting the edges of some serious emotional problems. In turn, Gretchen feels that her own life–with its series of unrewarding temporary jobs–has not been fulfilling. Even worse, her marriage to Ennis whom she had deeply loved proved to be a disaster, and they are now living apart.
Their parents, Betsy and Lincoln Silverstein, are long divorced. Betsy has married up, to the Great Neck manor–complete with swimming pool, rose garden, marble floored entryway–of her dreams, while Lincoln, who has battled with alcoholism, has struggled just to stay afloat. Lincoln still carries a torch for Betsy; seeing her is not easy, but he would not miss her daughter’s wedding and so will swallow the hurt he continues to nurse.
Ennis’s unexpected arrival at the wedding throws Gretchen off kilter and stirs her emotions. Gretchen must contend not only with him, but with the surprising information he has come to reveal, information that will force her to revaluate what went wrong between them, and whether it can ever be mended. And whatever her complicated feelings are for her estranged husband, she realizes she needs him to help deal with their daughter’s escalating dangerous behavior.
Caleb, the gay younger son, thinks he has found the love of his life, only to have his heart broken in the course of the day. And Lenore, Betsy’s octogenarian mother, is still very much alive and present, filled with plans and schemes for the family she loves so deeply. The intersection of these lives, the way they unfold and are changed, forever, during the course of this one day, is the subject of this wise but still witty novel.
BREAKING THE BANK
(Downtown Press, 2009)
Mia Saul is down on her luck. Then one evening a routine stop at her local bank’s ATM yields a surprise. The machine begins producing bills—quite a lot of them in fact—that are neither recorded nor debited from her account. At first Mia attributes the excess cash to a stroke of much needed luck. But when the machine continues to give her unaccounted for money and actually begins communicating with her, her life gets turned around in ways she never thought possible. An up-to-the minute urban story that has just a whiff of magic, Breaking The Bank is a wholly original, engaging work of contemporary fiction.
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In Dahlia’s Wake
(Doubleday, 2005)
A moving portrait of ordinary people in heartbreaking circumstances, In Dahlia’s Wake explores the ache of loss and the desperate desire to find a remedy. Naomi leaves her teaching job to volunteer at the hospital where Dahlia died and finds herself drawn to Michael McBride, the doctor who delivered the devastating news. Rick, haunted by guilt about the accident and tormented by Naomi’s emotional and physical withdrawal, falls into an affair with his office manager, the divorced mother of a young son. The distance between Rick and Naomi widens until another twist of fate and some wise words from Naomi’s mother—struggling with repeated bouts of memory loss–awakens them to the value of their own lives and to the true meaning of family. READ THE REVIEWS
The Four Temperaments
(Doubleday, 2002)
The spellbinding story of a father and son, both married, who fall in love with the same alluring ballerina. Set against the glamorous, exciting world of the New York City Ballet, The Four Temperaments explores the ways in which love and marriage are tested. Through its unforgettable cast of characters, this novel reveals how the demands of the flesh can suddenly, almost inexplicably, turn lives upside down. With the assurance and virtuosity of a seasoned storyteller, Yona Zeldis McDonough presents the powerfully sexy story of two adulterous affairs and imbues them with an irresistible emotional undercurrent. READ THE REVIEWS
