Synopses & Reviews
Within the walls of
Echo Terrace, the world ...
A beautifully resonant novel with a dazzling array of characters whose life stories are woven together into a breathtaking braid of love and memory.
Farro Fescu is the proud and observant concierge of Echo Terrace, a condominium in New York City. Passing through his lobby at all hours of the night and day is an exotic cross-section of the world's population: an Egyptian-born plastic surgeon who lives on the fifth floor and specializes in gender reassignment; a fighter pilot, on the eighth floor, who flew for Nazi Germany during World War II; an Iraqi spice merchant and the world-famous crazy-patch quilter with whom he's having an affair; the adulterer's son, dreaming of becoming an undertaker; and the widow whose apartment is a jungle Eden filled with a menagerie of specimens -- finches, canaries, a defanged cobra, a monkey named Joe -- that had been the subject of her dead husband's research.
Farro Fescu knows them all, knows all their secrets. He knows what happened to Yesenia Rivera, the nineteen-year-old staff housekeeper from Queens, when she took a fateful ride one evening on the Staten Island Ferry. He alone knows the truth behind the mysterious mishap that befell the fashion designer Ira Klempp, a resident of the twelfth floor. And he knows -- and would like to know much more -- about the alluring María Gracia Moño, sometime lover of Harry Falcon, the brilliant captain of industry who lives in the penthouse and is dying of cancer.
He is keenly attuned to the building and the people in it, 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.
As the narrative eye of Between Two Rivers floats from one apartment to another, revealing the characters' private histories and tracing the dramatic intersections of their daily lives, a lush tapestry of experience emerges. The story, in beautifully textured prose, is laced with wit and humor, subtle ironies and haunting echoes, and everywhere a profound sense of the resilience of the human spirit.
Review
"Between Two Rivers is a masterpiece, a book that will take your breath away." Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls
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"Rinaldi is a master of elegant prose and psychological insight. Though his narration sounds deceptively prim at first, Rivers gradually hypnotizes and charms, coaxing beauty from the tragic and surreal. (Grade: A)" Emily Mead, Entertainment Weekly
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"A beautiful, emotionally uplifting tribute to the human spirit....Rinaldi summons no less than the pageant of the human tragicomedy...effortlessly intertwin[ing] the political and the personal." Booklist (Starred Review)
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"Superb entertainment: some of the characterizations are superficial, but what counts is the warmhearted celebration of New Yorkers and their restless curiosity." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
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"Offer[s] subtle portraits of the residents of Echo Terrace....These are complex, moving stories...with multifaceted and memorable characters." Publishers Weekly
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"[T]here is nothing overdetermined or reductive about the stories themselves. Rinaldi...indulges his characters in their untidy lives, and readers who do the same will find their patience rewarded." Adam Mazmanian, The New York Times Book Review
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"Rinaldi's characters are varied and interesting. The mesh of events and personalities is beautifully crafted, giving the reader a wide range of scenarios to consider. Highly recommended." Library Journal
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"Offers even more than fine writing and a well-constructed, intriguing tale...poignant and uplifting." BookPage
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"Memorable....Richly textured....Rinaldi paints a complex, compelling portrait of the ways in which we flirt with the American Dream." People
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"Nicholas Rinaldi is such a gifted writer immensely articulate, lyrical, wise....This is one of those novels that seizes you from the outset, conjuring a diverse and vivid world as various as the bizarrely wonderful characters who pass through the lobby of Echo Terrace." Jay Parini, author of The Apprentice Lover
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"Nicholas Rinaldi's wonderful new novel is brave, clear, strong, loving, smart, and true. It illustrates the deeply personal cost of our actions and desires, and also offers a powerful force for healing." Richard Bausch, author of Hello to the Cannibals
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"Nicholas Rinaldi is a master storyteller, poignant, wry, insightful, and elegiac. In Between Two Rivers he is at his very best, gracefully weaving together the extraordinary matrix of human lives that make up New York." Kevin Baker, author of Paradise Alley
Synopsis
Rumanian refugee and concierge Farro Fescu observes the exotic cross-section of the world's population represented in his New York City condominium. This lush tapestry demonstrates the resilience of the human spirit even in the face of tragedy.
About the Author
Nicholas Rinaldi is the author of two previous novels, The Jukebox Queen of Malta and Bridge Fall Down, and three collections of poetry. His stories and poems have appeared widely in literary journals here and abroad. He teaches literature and creative writing at Fairfield University, and lives in Connecticut with his wife, Jackie.