by Dirk Wittenborn (Author)
1978: Lower East Side, New York. Fifteen-year-old Finn Earl's mother, Liz, is a thirty-two year-old masseuse with a taste for cocaine. When Liz's habit forces them to flee the city, they find protection under the wing of one her clients, ageing billionaire Mr Osborne. In Vlyvalle, a golden playground for the super-rich, Finn discovers a people who are stranger, more savage, and more secretive than any tribe in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. Offered a new life and new friends amongst the decadent and beautiful denizens of Osborne's empire, Finn falls in love and grows up fast. He's living a twisted approximation of the American dream - and for a moment everything he wants is there for the taking. But in America, social-climbing is a blood sport. Even on what should be the happiest night of Finn's life, on an island in the middle of a private lake, naked and high with Maya, Osborne's bewitching granddaughter, someone is watching him from the depths of the forest and laughing. A modern coming-of-age novel in the tradition of HUCKLEBERRY FINN, and a portrait of America as vivid and strange as THE GREAT GATSBY, FIERCE PEOPLE marks the emergence of a dazzling new talent.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: 30 Jun 2002
ISBN 10: 0747556806
ISBN 13: 9780747556800
Book Overview: 'A whacked out hybrid of Dickens and Salinger, a compelling, and moving, coming-of-age novel which dares to tackle the last great taboo in American literature - the subject of class. And the second to last great taboo - New Jersey' Jay McInerney Film rights optioned and publication accompanied by major publicity.