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Between Two Rivers: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Nicholas Rinaldi (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 out of 5 stars 34 ratings

Farro Fescu is the proud and observant concierge of Echo Terrace, a condominium in New York City. Passing through his lobby at all hours is an exotic cross-section of the world's population: an Egyptian-born plastic surgeon who specializes in gender reassignment, a fighter pilot who flew for Nazi Germany during World War II, an Iraqi spice merchant and the world-famous quilter with whom he's having an affair, the adulterer's son who dreams of becoming an undertaker, and the widow whose apartment is a jungle Eden filled with a menagerie of specimens.

Farro Fescu knows them all, knows all their secrets. 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 what he will be capable of in the face of sudden, overwhelming tragedy.

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

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  1. Print length
    466 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    HarperCollins e-books
  4. Publication date
    October 13, 2009
  5. File size
    4.0 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Intertwining stories by the author of The Jukebox Queen of Malta offer subtle portraits of the residents of Echo Terrace, a fictitious Battery Park building in which the condominiums are named after the likes of Mae West, Susan B. Anthony and Grandma Moses. At the book's center is the inimitable Romanian concierge, Farro Fescu, who watches with keen eyes the comings and goings of the intriguing inhabitants, including Karl Vogel, a Luftwaffe pilot engaged in an affair with a journalist whose grandfather was killed by a Nazi fighter pilot ("She is making peace with the enemy," Karl thinks); Yesenia, a captivating 19-year-old housemaid who is brutally raped on the way home to her Queens apartment; and Theo, a plastic surgeon who falls for a widow whose husband admitted to an affair and shortly thereafter died of a heart attack. Devastated, the woman, Nora, poisons her exotic pets ("Whatever I love, I make it die") and then walks into traffic. With Nora in a coma, her young actress niece, Angela, moves into her apartment and enters into an unlikely affair with a poem-quoting undertaker who is convinced that love can conquer all. Among a few bizarre twists, a young designer falls (or is pushed) from a window, and Theo is drafted by the FBI to perform a sex-change operation on one of Augusto Pinochet's collaborators. These are complex, moving stories without straightforward resolutions-as one character remarks, "Life is heavy, it weighs"-and if they feel a bit overwritten sometimes, Rinaldi compensates for this with multifaceted and memorable characters.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Through the microcosm of a large cast of international characters residing in a condo building in lower Manhattan during the years 1992-2001, Rinaldi summons no less than the pageant of the human tragicomedy. Each of them, at times, lonely and isolated, harbors an incredibly rich interior life in which the past is fully alive and readily accessible. Karl Vogel, a highly decorated WWII German fighter pilot, recalls his hatred for Hitler, while Farro Fescu, the proud Romanian concierge, still misses his uncles, who may have been killed in one of Vogel's bombing raids; nevertheless, the two men share a cordial relationship. Egyptian-born plastic surgeon Theo Tattafruge, who specializes in transgender operations, obsessively researches Teddy Roosevelt's adventurous life, finding in it an intoxicating mix of decisiveness and optimism that is so lacking in his patients' lives. Artist Maggie Sowle is commissioned by the UN to make a memorial quilt and puts her long-dead, much-loved husband's handprints at the center. In this way, Rinaldi effortlessly intertwines the political and the personal. With lavish and loving detail, he invokes the human experience--weddings and wars, art and commerce, births and funerals. A beautiful, emotionally uplifting tribute to the human spirit. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000QTE9VQ
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins e-books (October 13, 2009)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 13, 2009
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4.0 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 466 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0060578777
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 out of 5 stars 34 ratings

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
34 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • michael sebetich
    5.0 out of 5 stars The novel is like an imaginative compelation of short stories all connected in NYC.
    Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    I liked everything about this novel, mainly because it is well written and interesting. The author, Nicholas Rinaldi, interweaves the personal lives of numerous residents living in an upscale, medium size apartment building near the Battery, close to the Hudson River in NYC. Much is seen through the eyes of the concierge who has been there since the opening of the apartment building. He seems to know everything about everybody in the buildiing. The author does not make judgements about any of the residents, so that aspect is left to the reader. Even the cleaning people are integral and interesting.

    The author takes you through the lobby and into most of the apartment rooms in a way that you can visualize all. Through the descriptions of the residents and of their present jobs and past experiences allows you to get to know them. One of the most fascinating parts of the novel is the final 40 pages in which you virtually see and feel the the attack on the two World Trade Center buildings on September 11, 2001, through the personal description of one of the apartment residents who had an appointment high in one World Trade Center tower at the time the other tower was hit. It was the best coverage of the attack and aftermath that I have ever read, and this coverage is in a novel, this novel.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Luan Gaines
    4.0 out of 5 stars From mercy to mayhem
    Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2004
    A young widow, tormented by her loss, surrounds herself with the exotic animals that remind her of the rainforest and the time she spent there with her husband on their idyllic honeymoon. That time out of mind, the intensity of experience cannot be regained once they return to the city, only remembered.
    A plastic surgeon has the power to change lives. He loves his work, sculpting perfection into the human form. But, careful as he is, mistakes, misjudgments are made, the psychological sabotaging of the results of his scalpel. People are, after all, victims of their own perceptions, sometimes unable to allow themselves the joy, the opportunities of their new lives.
    Part of the housekeeping staff at the Echo Terrace condominiums, Yesenia is only nineteen, her whole life yawning before her. One evening, lost in the dark beauty of the city, she waits too long to start home and darkness falls, rendering the streets more dangerous. She finds herself alone on the subway, a young man stalking her.
    All of these people, and more, are part of the complex humanity of Echo Terrace, where Farro Fescu is the concierge, a Rumanian lover of lists. Disappointed in life, but burdened with a romantic soul, Fescu finds comfort and direction in his lists, a manner of managing chaos, keeping track of all his charges and their needs. Too easily he becomes mired in his disappointments; the lists soothe him, allow him to cease struggling.
    Rinaldi's characters are complex, challenging stereotypes, full of the dichotomies that plague most people, the ambiguity of routine, the occasional prick of conscience, the distance of real passion or emotion; they act out their roles, playing the parts they are assigned, indistinguishable in this respect. But their interiors are jumbled and patched, unrecognizable from their everyday selves. Inside, reality plays havoc with their souls.
    Those who live in Echo Terrace are well-off, urbane, and proud to be a part of the bustle of New York. Those who work there, the shadow-people, entertain more cautious expectations. In this place, the author has built a sculpture of personalities, each a new armature attached to the body that defines the form, like branches from a tree, interconnected. Just as people affect each other in immeasurable ways, this entity changes minutely, a living piece. If Echo Terrace is the matrix, all those who live there contribute to the dimensions. Finally, they are united in purpose, grateful to have survived their city on that terrible day in September that changes the world forever. Luan Gaines/2004
    2 people found this helpful
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  • may77
    5.0 out of 5 stars Between Two Rivers. Great author.
    Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Why didn't I know about this author earlier? It's a great, engrossing read. Not simplistic; elegant handling of the language. I have ordered another of his books. (Jukebox Queen of Malta)
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  • MV
    3.0 out of 5 stars quirky view of New york
    Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2011
    Set across a ten year time period that ends at 9/11, Between Two Rivers provides a glancing portrait at a wide section of mostly wealthy New Yorkers who all share a condo building in Battery Park. A couple of tangential characters, Farro, the concierge of the building, Maria a kind of shared high class prostitute, and Yessenia, one of the maids, round out the cast. Each chapter focuses on one character's perspective (although a few combine two characters) with Farro getting the most chapters. Farro is the voice of the person trying to keep order in a chaotic universe that might be overrun with ants or mice or bad ideas at any time. The ability to stop chaos though is evidently impossible the novel seems to suggest with its very chaotic, filthy ending as the twin towers collapse around the building and its residents who didn't die in the towers must flee.

    One of the strengths of this structure is that you get multiple perspectives of the lives of New Yorkers. One of the weaknesses is that you don't get to know anyone well. The characters you know the most are still only partially developed sketches. Despite this limited development, the novel carries you through, engaging with its quirky characters (an Arab who falls madly in love with a struggling actress; a famous quilt maker who is doing a quilt for the United Nations, a plastic surgeon whose specialty is transgender alterations, a German gunner from WWII. Each of these characters is at least momentarily interesting and just enough unpredictable that you want to hear more.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Dr. Sally Ann Michlin
    5.0 out of 5 stars There is no such thing as an "average New Yorker"
    Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2004
    Verified Purchase
    Rinaldi's spellbinding descriptions of the residents of Echo Towers belies the phrase "average New Yorker." Each character, rich in personal history, becomes more than words on a page. When I finished reading, I felt as though I had been deserted by my neighbors because I was so engrossed in the lives in the book. I recommend Between Two Rivers to those who like intelligent entertainment.
    6 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • wolfgang h decker
    2.0 out of 5 stars Between two Rivers
    Reviewed in Canada on February 22, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    The reason I choose this Rating is that I really liked his book "The Juke Box Queen of Malta" and this one does, from my Point of view, not even come close to it.
    Wolfgang Decker
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