He shares his cell with the charismatic and grandiose Kolya, a handsome young soldier arrested on desertion charges. When a dead German paratrooper lands in his street, Lev is caught looting the body and dragged to jail, fearing for his life. He’s small, smart, and insecure, a Jewish virgin too young for the army, who spends his nights working as a volunteer firefighter with friends from his building. Lev Beniov considers himself built for deprivation. The result is the captivating odyssey of two young men trying to survive against desperate odds. His grandmother won t talk about it, but his grandfather reluctantly consents. It’s a shocker.Īs wise and funny as it is thrilling and original the story of two young men on an impossible adventureA writer visits his retired grandparents in Florida to document their experience during the infamous siege of Leningrad. What neither Slattery nor Jakob know, however, is that Monty has a plan. They drink, and talk, go clubbing, dance, drink, and remember. Friends since their high school days, the three of them nostalgically share a past, but warily they confront a future that can no longer accommodate their adolescent dreams. At the same time, it illuminates the worlds, and souls, of his two best friends: Frank Slattery, an edgy bond trader who gambles daily with financial ruin, and Jakob Elinsky, an English teacher who clings to illusions as he compromises his ideals. With the pulse of the city in its prose, this debut novel follows Monty through the twenty four hours of his last day out. He’s afraid, and all he’d ever really wanted when he grew up was to be a fireman. Tomorrow Monty’s traveling by bus, to the federal prison in Otisville, for seven years. They’re the rewards that Monty Brogan, who stands at the center of the moral glare in this tale, has already lost, just as he’s lost his Corvette, and the ‘sway’ that opened the doors of exclusive night spots and guaranteed him courtside seats at Madison Square Garden. Wall Street speculators, the Manhattan downtown club scene, Russian gangsters, immigrant neighborhoods all the elements in the urban turf of this finely crafted contemporary crime novel wed danger with excitement and possibility. An absorbing novel of crime, its terrifying consequences, and a bond that redefines the friendship of three restless young men.

David benioff book