Between Two Rivers: A Novel
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Farro Fescu is the proud and observant concierge of Echo Terrace, a condominium in New York City. Passing through his lobby at all hours is an exotic cross-section of the world's population: an Egyptian-born plastic surgeon who specializes in gender reassignment, a fighter pilot who flew for Nazi Germany during World War II, an Iraqi spice merchant and the world-famous quilter with whom he's having an affair, the adulterer's son who dreams of becoming an undertaker, and the widow whose apartment is a jungle Eden filled with a menagerie of specimens.
Farro Fescu knows them all, knows all their secrets. 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 what he will be capable of in the face of sudden, overwhelming tragedy.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Nicholas Rinaldi
Nicholas Rinaldi is the author of three previous novels (Bridge Fall Down, The Jukebox Queen of Malta, and Between Two Rivers) and three collections of poetry. His work has been widely reviewed and earned many awards in the United States and abroad. With his wife, Jacqueline, he currently resides in Connecticut. Please visit his website at NicholasRinaldi.net.
Read more from Nicholas Rinaldi
Between Two Rivers: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Remarkable Courtship of General Tom Thumb: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJukebox Queen Of Malta: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Between Two Rivers
Related ebooks
Meeting the Tormentors in Safeway Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPainting Time: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAway from You: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Orlando: A Biography - Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Orlando: A Biography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Urban Affair: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBread and Salt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Interview Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Shark: & other stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOrlando Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Tender Matador Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Samedi's Knapsack Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClassic Tales of the Supernatural Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBefore Dawn on Bluff Road / Hollyhocks in the Fog: Selected New Jersey Poems / Selected San Francisco Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Marriage of the Sea: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDue Preparations for the Plague Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStroking Cerberus: Poems from the Afterlife Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Little Lady of the Big House (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Few Things You Should Know About the Weasel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClassic Ghost Stories: A collection of chilling supernatural tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hungry and the Lost Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Little Lady Of The Big House Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Nap-Away Motel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSky-Bound Misfit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPurblind Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow's the Pain? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/533 Revolutions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Prince to Order Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNight Street Repairs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Losgadh Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
General Fiction For You
The Alchemist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Ends with Us: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anonymous Sex Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5You: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Priory of the Orange Tree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Outsider: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unhoneymooners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meditations: Complete and Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nettle & Bone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Sister's Keeper: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Good and Evil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cabin at the End of the World: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Foster Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shantaram: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beartown: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The City of Dreaming Books Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Iliad of Homer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Between Two Rivers
28 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Set within the walls of Echo Terrace, a flash New York apartment building, Between Two Rivers is a smooth-flowing elegantly written novel about the everyday lives of the residents and staff of an upscale Condominium. Rather than offering an intricate plot, Rinaldi expertly interweaves the lives of the characters, tracing how their day-to-day lives cross and collide and become dramatically intertwined as they go about their daily business. At the centre, seated behind his oak desk in the marble lobby, concierge Farro Fescu is the pivot around whom the life of the building revolves. The building is Farro's passion as well as his work, his intimate knowledge of the residents every custom, need and desire such, it seems wires run from his fingers to every apartment. Rinaldi uses Farro to pull the whole together. Through Farro, Rinaldi brings into play all sorts of extraordinary characters, a cross-section of society in fact, who breathe life into the building - and the novel, each with their own very different complex backstory to tell. Character-driven rather than plot-driven, Rinaldi's narrative cross-cuts intermittently from one apartment to another, spotlighting first one character then another as the narrative focus switches up and down and around the building. The effect is to allow the reader to look through different windows, watching unseen as Rinaldi switches from one apartment to another, and from one scenario to the next - a widow whose apartment houses a collection of wildlife; an ex-Luftwaffe fighter pilot; a plastic surgeon who performs sex-change ops: a frozen-food big cheese who is dying of cancer - revealing in a series of vivid snapshots, the depth and complexity, the heart and mind, of each character in focus. A series of powerful, dramatic set-pieces including et al, the rape of the Condo's young housekeeper on the subway and the attacks on the World Trade Centre, culminating in the terrible events of 9/11, had this reader racing chapter after chapter through the velvet-smooth prose in what seemed like no time at all; prose infused with surges of anguish and terror that resonates long in the mind. Elsewhere in the book, in contrast, the tone is softer. Recommended! Try also The New Yorker's Wonderful Town and The Time Out Book of New York Short Stories for other perspectives on life in New York apartment buildings.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I was captivated by Between two Rivers when it was first published three years ago, and have since loaned my copy to at least six friends, each of whom has thanked me for the recommendation and wondered along with me - why has this outstanding work not been more widely read? Rinaldi has given life to an unforgettable, multidimensional, disparate cast of characters, each with an absorbing backstory, all of whom move inexorably toward their personal confrontation with the horror of 9/11. We know this is coming, and because we are made to care so very deeply for these people, we hold our breath during the final fifty pages, asking ourselves - with the hindsight of those horrific images - where is he, what does she know, what is he feeling, how will she get on with life? Since the publishing of BTR, several other authors have incorporated themes of 9/11 in their works, most notably Claire Messud in The Emperor's Children and Ian McEwan in Saturday. But none have done so as masterfully as Nick Rinaldi.