Jack Livings Libri

A couple buy a racing dog thinking it will be the key to great fortune. But when gambling is forbidden the family must find another use for the dog . . . A wealthy factory owner - once a rural peasant - whose altruism is tested in the wake of a horrific earthquake. A powerful gangster clashes with his homosexual grandson. A glassworker is tasked with building a giant crystal sarcophagus for Chairman Mao. Jack Livings is a fabulously compelling new voice in contemporary fiction. These are his stories of modern China. 'Exceptional. I read it as slowly as I could and still finished it in a day. It is done with so much understanding and conviction, you'd think you'd been there.' Michael Hofmann, TLS Books of the Year

On the night of February 6, 1978, an overwhelming nor'easter struck the city of New York. On that night, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, in a penthouse apartment of the stately Apelles, a crowd gathered for a grand party. And on that night Mr. Albert Haynes Caldwell--a partner emeritus at Swank, Brady & Plescher; Harvard class of '26; father of three; widower; atheist; and fiscal conservative--hatched a plan to fake a medical emergency and toss himself into the Hudson River, where he would drown. Jack Livings's The Blizzard Party is the story of that night.