Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1036656 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-19
• Released on: 2005-05-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Intertwining stories by the author of The Jukebox Queen of Malta offer subtle portraits of the residents of Echo Terrace, a fictitious Battery Park building in which the condominiums are named after the likes of Mae West, Susan B. Anthony and Grandma Moses. At the book's center is the inimitable Romanian concierge, Farro Fescu, who watches with keen eyes the comings and goings of the intriguing inhabitants, including Karl Vogel, a Luftwaffe pilot engaged in an affair with a journalist whose grandfather was killed by a Nazi fighter pilot ("She is making peace with the enemy," Karl thinks); Yesenia, a captivating 19-year-old housemaid who is brutally raped on the way home to her Queens apartment; and Theo, a plastic surgeon who falls for a widow whose husband admitted to an affair and shortly thereafter died of a heart attack. Devastated, the woman, Nora, poisons her exotic pets ("Whatever I love, I make it die") and then walks into traffic. With Nora in a coma, her young actress niece, Angela, moves into her apartment and enters into an unlikely affair with a poem-quoting undertaker who is convinced that love can conquer all. Among a few bizarre twists, a young designer falls (or is pushed) from a window, and Theo is drafted by the FBI to perform a sex-change operation on one of Augusto Pinochet's collaborators. These are complex, moving stories without straightforward resolutions-as one character remarks, "Life is heavy, it weighs"-and if they feel a bit overwritten sometimes, Rinaldi compensates for this with multifaceted and memorable characters.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Through the microcosm of a large cast of international characters residing in a condo building in lower Manhattan during the years 1992-2001, Rinaldi summons no less than the pageant of the human tragicomedy. Each of them, at times, lonely and isolated, harbors an incredibly rich interior life in which the past is fully alive and readily accessible. Karl Vogel, a highly decorated WWII German fighter pilot, recalls his hatred for Hitler, while Farro Fescu, the proud Romanian concierge, still misses his uncles, who may have been killed in one of Vogel's bombing raids; nevertheless, the two men share a cordial relationship. Egyptian-born plastic surgeon Theo Tattafruge, who specializes in transgender operations, obsessively researches Teddy Roosevelt's adventurous life, finding in it an intoxicating mix of decisiveness and optimism that is so lacking in his patients' lives. Artist Maggie Sowle is commissioned by the UN to make a memorial quilt and puts her long-dead, much-loved husband's handprints at the center. In this way, Rinaldi effortlessly intertwines the political and the personal. With lavish and loving detail, he invokes the human experience--weddings and wars, art and commerce, births and funerals. A beautiful, emotionally uplifting tribute to the human spirit. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"A novel of substance worth your sinking into this summer.. BETWEEN TWO RIVERS is the book of a lifetime." (Philadelphia Inquirer )

"Memorable....Richly textured....Rinaldi paints a complex, compelling portrait of the ways in which we flirt with the American Dream." (People )

"In a city with eight million stories, this is one worth picking up." (Wall Street Journal )

"Offer[s] subtle portraits of the residents of Echo Terrace....These are complex, moving stoires...with multifaceted and memorable characters." (Publishers Weekly )

"Vivid, elegiac.. Hauntingly beautiful." (Boston Globe )

"A beautiful, emotionally uplifting tribute to the human spirit....Rinaldi summons no less than the pageant of the human tragicomedy." (Booklist (Starred Review) )

"Superb entertainment . what counts is the warmhearted celebration of New Yorkers and their relentless curiosity." (Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) )

"Offers even more than fine writing and a well-constructed, intriguing tale ... poignant and uplifting." (BookPage )

"Nicholas Rinaldi is such a gifted writer -- immensely articulate, lyrical, wise." (Jay Parini, author of THE APPRENTICE LOVER )

"Sprawling [and] elegant." (New York Times Book Review )

"A rich, ambitious book....Rinaldi conjures a cosmopolitan New York that is violent and tender." (The Economist )

"Rinaldi is a master of elegant prose.gradually hypnotizes and charms, coaxing beauty from the tragic and surreal." (Entertainment Weekly )

"Hypnotic . Mesmerizing.Audacious. a novel of eerie dimension . A wondrously restrained group portrait of a downtown Manhattan condominium's residents." (Elle )

Customer Reviews

a novel of characters
Between Two Rivers is something different from the usual adventure story or chick lit, a novel that really invests in characters and how they change over time. It’ll be a long while before I forget about the tenants of Echo Terrace, from the all-knowing concierge to the dying frozen-food magnate in the penthouse. And the writing is as smooth as silk.

A Poignant Account of a Dazzling Array of City Dwellers
Rinaldi's latest novel, set in a condo in lower Manhattan, is a profoundly rich exploration of an exotic cross-section of the world's population. The lives of the inhabitants, who are an interesting assortment of rich and poor alike, are compelling and fully realized in themselves; yet they intersect in ways that form a rich tapestry of experience, underscoring our popfound need for human interdependence. Executed in beautifully textured prose, these stories are all inner journeys into the self which eventually move the characters towards self-understanding and acceptance.

"Between Two Rivers" Will Inspire Generations
"Between Two Rivers" is a mesmerizing novel. It depicts the lives of the diverse residents of Echo Terrace, a condiminium in lower Manhatten, concluding with the events of September 11, 2001.

Nicholas Rinaldi is a knowledgable and sensitive writer, as evidenced in his numerous historical allusions, his detailed descriptions, his command of language and use of foreign terms, his philosophical speculations, and more. His portrayal of human thoughts and emotions gives his characters life--life that is fictitious yet real; strange yet familiar. Despite its complex characters, images and themes, the novel exudes a simplicity that makes it highly accessible and easy to read. This is one of the many remarkable aspects of this work.

Towards the end of the novel, we join the characters and relive the tragedy of 9/11 in Rinaldi's vivid representation of that unforgettable day. Nonetheless, the author's words inspire us with hope and optimism. Throughout the novel, Rinaldi's intelligent humor is entertaining and uplifting, even in the darkest of pages.