When Sue Glassman’s family needs a new home, Sue relents, after years of resisting, and agrees to convert to Judaism. In return, Sue’s father-in-law, Sy, buys the family—Sue, Dan, and their two daughters—a big, ramshackle beachfront house in Rockaway, Queens, a world away from the Glassman’s’ cramped Tribeca apartment. The catch? Sy is moving in, too. And the house is haunted.
On the weekend of Sue’s conversion party, ninety-year-old Rose, who (literally) got away with murder on the premises shows up uninvited and seemingly intent on moving back in. Enter neighbor Tim a.k.a Timmy (see From Rockaway), a former lifeguard, former firefighter, and recovered alcoholic—who feels, for reasons even he can’t explain, inordinately protective of the Glassmans.
The collective crack-up occasioned by Rose’s return swells to operatic heights in a novel that addresses the perils of and strategies for living in a world rife with uncertainty.
Swell is published under the Lee Boudreaux imprint. To find out more about Lee Boudreaux books: http://www.leeboudreauxbooks.com/about.html
NOW in PAPERBACK
“…Rockaway Beach is granted the sort of soulful reflection that knocks you flat…” — Boris Fishman, New York Times Book Review
“In this touching portrait of ordinary people grappling with the aftershocks of 9/11—memorials, uncertainty, death, and a new life—the emotional upheaval of a national tragedy leaves no one unaffected.” — Publishers Weekly
“With a pitch-perfect narrative voice and plenty of humor, Eisenstadt captures the lives of her Mets-loving and Yankee-hating characters in vivid detail.” — Mark Levine, Booklist
“With tremendous tenderness, Eisenstadt captures the traumatized Rockaway of the early 2000s in swirling Technicolor….A whimsical portrait of a still-raw community.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Rising, roaring, riveting — “Swell” is a steady read, slowly escalating until the pages start to teem with the anxiety of every character’s life bursting through its seams.” — Arya Naidu, Michigan Daily
“Moving, dark, and funny.” — David Gutowski, Largehearted Boy
“In her new novel, Swell, Jill Eisenstadt comes back to Rockaway, and this visit revolves around historical events of recent decades….Swell is anchored in real understanding of the people of Rockaway, what they went through in those years and their recourse to black humor.” — Marion Winik, Newsday
Art by Jenny Williams
Rockaway Beach Live Surf Cam
