Synopses & Reviews
At seventeen, David "Lizard" Hochmeyer is nearly seven feet tall, a star quarterback, and Princeton-bound. His future seems all but assured until his parents are mysteriously murdered, leaving Lizard and his older sister, Kate, adrift and alone. Sylphide, the world's greatest ballerina, lives across the pond from their Connecticut home, in a mansion the size of a museum, and it turns out that her rock star husband's own disasters have intersected with Lizard's — and Kate's — in the most intimate and surprising ways.
Over the decades that follow, Lizard and Kate are obsessed with uncovering the motives behind the deaths, returning time and again to their father's missing briefcase, his shady business dealings and shaky finances, and to Sylphide, who has threaded her way into Lizard's and Kate's lives much more deeply than either had ever realized. From the football fields of Princeton to a stint with the NFL, from elaborate dances at the mansion to the seductions lying in wait for Lizard, and ultimately to the upscale restaurant he opens in his hometown, it only takes Lizard a lifetime to piece it all together.
A wildly entertaining novel of murder, seduction, and revenge — rich in incident, in expansiveness of character, and in lavishness of setting — it's a Gatsby-esque adventure, a larger-than-life quest for answers that reveals how sometimes the greatest mystery lies in knowing one's own heart.
Synopsis
This funny, exuberant novel captures the reader with the grand sweep of seven-foot-tall David Lizard Hochmeyer s larger-than-life quest to unravel the mystery surrounding his parents deaths. It s a journey laden with pro football stars, a master chef and his beautiful transvestite lover, a world-famous ballerina and her English rocker husband, and a sister who s as brilliant as she is unstable. A wildly entertaining, plot-twisting novel of murder, seduction, and revenge--rich in incident, expansive in character, and lavish in setting--Life Among Giantsis an exhilarating adventure.
Editors pick for Amazon s Best of 2012
Shelf AwarenessTop Ten Best Fiction of 2012
Columbus Dispatch s Top Books of 2012
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About the Author
Bill Roorbach is the author of several books of fiction and nonfiction. His work has been published in Harper’s, The Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, the New York Times Magazine, Granta, New York, and dozens of other magazines and journals.