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margaretatwoodIn her 2003 novel Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood describes a future after humanity had been almost entirely wiped out by a plague. Jimmy, aka Snowman, lives... Continue »
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More copies of this ISBN:

Dirt Cheap

by Lyn Miller Lachmann

Dirt Cheap Cover

ISBN13: 9781931896290
ISBN10: 1931896291
Condition: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Lyn Miller-Lachmann's novel, Dirt Cheap, is an eco-thriller that will strongly appeal to anyone interested in ecology and the crime novel genre. In this suspenseful novel, Nick Baran, a middle-aged professor, pursues the chemical company that he believes gave him leukemia and contaminated his suburban neighborhood. His wife feels isolated, exhausted and frightened by her husband's obsessive pursuit, and ultimately begins an affair with a powerful local attorney who opposes her husband's efforts. When Sandy (the idealistic teacher of Nick's son) joins Nick's crusade, she allows herself to be drawn into a retaliatory affair and into his messy and tragic life.

Told from multiple points of view, Dirt Cheapexplores the loss of innocence, the nature of courage, the price of material comforts, the place of faith and community, and the power of the individual to change lives.

Lyn Miller-Lachmannis editor in chief of MultiCultural Reviewand an author and editor of reference books, textbooks, and books for young readers. Among these are the award-winning multicultural reference title Our Family, Our Friends, Our Worldand Once Upon a Cuento, a collection of short stories for children by Latino authors. She lives in Albany, New York.

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About the Author

Lyn Miller-Lachmann is Editor of MultiCultural Review. Among her previous publications are the award-winning reference title Our Family, Our Friends, Our World, a short story collection for children by Latino authors Once Upon a Cuento, and the eco-thriller Dirt Cheap. She lives in Albany, New York, where she is active in organizations for peace, human rights, and a sustainable environment.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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olivasdan, May 22, 2006 (view all comments by olivasdan)
Misfits and mystery
Activist's first novel is a lively eco-thriller

By Daniel A. Olivas
[review first appeared in the El Paso Times]

Lyn Miller-Lachmann has dedicated her life to promoting multicultural literature in the hope that readers of all ages learn to appreciate and admire those who come from different cultures. She also has been active in human rights, social and environmental justice, and peace groups since the mid-1970s.

She could easily rest on her laurels and call it a day.

But she now brings us her first novel, "Dirt Cheap" (Curbstone Press, $15.95 paperback).

In it, as with her other work, Miller-Lachmann does not shy away from tough questions of what we, as a people, are doing to our planet and to each other. And she does so with crisp dialogue and fully realized characters.

The heart of this novel is the relationship between Nicholas Baran and Sandy Katz. Baran, who was raised in a scrapyard by an alcoholic father, is now deep into middle age and teaching at a community college, but with an anger toward life's injustices that drives him to radical politics and a brilliant, junkyard-dog intensity in the classroom. His anger helps him survive chemotherapy as he wrestles leukemia into remission. Baran is a handful for his wife and children, but they more or less allow him to live his radicalized life.

Katz, on the other hand, is young and not yet jaded. She teaches at the local middle school and has Baran's son in her class. Katz struggles with her independence from her parents and her desire to reconnect with Judaism. She also is failing miserably as a teacher. So when she's tapped to coach the "B" team in basketball -- which includes Baran's son -- she accepts the opportunity to burnish her teaching record.

Baran agrees to assist Katz in coaching, which leads to some of the novel's most interesting interaction between the world-weary rabble-rouser and the idealistic neophyte.

But something more brings Baran and Katz together: There is an alarming rate of cancer among the children in the community. Baran already suspects corporate crimes and has been conducting soil and water samples, much to the consternation of his wife, Holly, and Marc Braxton, a local attorney who is concerned that Baran's quest could be disastrous to real-estate values and business.

Baran and Katz eventually join forces to uncover hard evidence of the intentional contamination of their community's soil and water by the Hometown Chemical Co.

Miller-Lachmann kicks her narrative into high gear as we watch this odd couple search for the truth. The novel succeeds beyond this "eco-thriller" aspect of the story because Miller-Lachmann imbues her characters with all the strengths and weaknesses that we see in those we love and know. And because Baran and Katz are so well-drawn, we eventually care for them -- despite their personal failings -- and cheer them on as they attempt to reveal the cause of the cancer clusters.

"Dirt Cheap" is an enthralling novel that raises complex questions about how we treat each other as well as the environment in which we live. Miller-Lachmann can now add "novelist" to her long list of literary accomplishments.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781931896290
Author:
Miller Lachmann, Lyn
Publisher:
Curbstone Press
Author:
Miller-Lachmann, Lyn
Subject:
General
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
Thrillers
Publication Date:
June 2006
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
365
Dimensions:
8.00 x 5.00 in
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