August and then some
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- HUF1,790.00
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- HUF1,790.00
Publisher Description
A novel from the author of Say That to My Face
New York City. By day, JT Savage is a labourer on the Upper East Side; by night an insomniac in an East Village tenement. His had been a superficially normal childhood in Yonkers, New York; a time of beers by the river, of working in his friend’s father’s garage, of studying to go to college. Then, one night, everything changed.
‘August And Then Some’ is a taut and gripping family drama, in which horrifying secrets kept between father and daughter, and mother and son, explode during one tragic night. Set over the course of two summers, it is a novel of revenge and the difficulty of repentance and forgiveness.
Jaggedly beautiful and intensely realised, tightly plotted yet expansive, this debut novel is the coming-of-age of a striking new voice in American fiction.
About the author
David Prete is an actor, voice coach and writer of Say It to My Face, published in 2004. He lives in New York.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In his devastating second novel (after Say That to My Face), Prete weaves the events of one steamy New York summer and its aftermath into a story of tragedy and redemption. When 17-year-old JT Savage finds out that his father has been sexually abusing his little sister, Danielle, he and his friend Eugene "Nokey" Cervella try to steal a beloved 1965 Shelby Cobra from the family garage, a doomed bid for revenge with grim consequences. In a parallel narrative, JT flees Yonkers and heads to Manhattan's Lower East Side to work for a landscaping company, and befriends Stephanie, a 13-year-old Dominican neighbor who has "sadness coming off her like heat." As the two forge a tentative bond, the extent of Danielle and Nokey's dire predicaments are revealed. Though the author never shies away from grappling with big issues whether sociological, familial, or emotional , Prete too often falls back on cursing and easy signifying accents to convey a sense of gritty inner-city authenticity, and some of the key relationships lack dimension. Ultimately, JT's reflection "I wonder what ordinary feels like" rings as the novel's most profound statement for a young man whose choices may permanently alienate him from normalcy.
