Between Two Rivers

by NicholasRinaldi (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $3.23

  Within the walls of Echo Terrace, the world... Farro Fescu is the concierge of Echo Terrace, an apartment block in New York City. Passing through his lobby at all hours of the night and day is an exotic cross-section of the world's population: An Egyptian born plastic surgeon who lives on the fifth floor and specialises in gender reassignment; a fighter pilot, on the eighth floor, who flew for Nazi Germany during WWII; an Iraqi spice merchant and the world-famous crazy-patch quilter with whom he's having an affair; and the young widow whose apartment is a jungle Eden filled with a menagerie of specimens - finches, canaries, a defanged cobra, and a monkey named Joe - that had been the subject of her dead husband's research. Fescu knows them all, knows all their secrets. He is keenly attuned to the building and the people in it, 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 of what he will be capable in the face of sudden, overwhelming tragedy...

• Used

  Hardcover
  2004

  $3.23

  Farro Fescu, concierge, janitor, general factoturn, oversees the lives of the residents of Echo Terrace, collecting their mail, organising their taxis, fixing problems with their apartments. There is Nora Abernooth, who lives with a menagerie of birds, snakes and monkeys who provide much-needed company since the death of her husband. In the penthouse is Harry Falcon, multimillionaire and founder of the country's biggest frozen-food company, who is slowly dying of cancer. In the Harry Houdini suite is Dr Tattafruge, cosmetic surgeon to the stars and specialist in sex change operations. Maggie Sowle lives a quiet life in the Helen Keller apartment, sewing quilts that will hang in galleries around the world. Abdul Saad is a young Muslim making his way in the mortuary business, still living at home with his parents but dreaming of a better life and of the woman he loves. Karl Vogel sits in his apartment, surrounded by walls painted blue to remind him of the skies he used to fly through as a Luftwaffe ace back in the bad old days. And of course, Luther Rumfarm, making more and more money on the bond market and, not so quietly, buying up all the apartments he can. Farro Fescu watches the