Author Description

<p><p>in New York City, Justine Laxness Works As A Money Manager At An International Nonprofit Company, Aquinas. Her Obsession With Her Boss, Peter, Spurs Her To Embezzle Funds And Lend The Money To James Nutter, A Screenwriter And Old Flame Who Has Resurfaced In Justine's Life After Fifteen Years. But Every Action She Takes Will Have Unforeseen Ramifications, Creating A Tidal Wave Of Betrayal And Destruction, From The Three Gorges Dam On The Yangtze To The Refined Vistas Of Central Park. Lyrical And Suspenseful By Turns, <i>the City Is A Rising Tide</i> Is An Enchanting Work Of Luminous Prose And Uncommon Imagination.<br></p><h3>publishers Weekly</h3><p>early 1990s New York And 1970s Beijing Intersect In The Memory Of Justine, Who Narrates Her Own Downward Spiral Into An Obsessive, Unrequited Love. Justine And Co-worker Peter Are, Respectively, The Sole Staff And Founder Of A Quasi-legitimate Nonprofit Quixotically Attempting To Build A Holistic Center In Boom-time China. The Two First Met When Justine Was Just A Child In Mao's Beijing, And Peter Was Already Tossing About In Shadowy Financial Deals; She Fell For Him Then. A Self-righteous Ex-boyfriend, A Chorus Of Women Friends And A Concerned Family All Tell Justine That Waiting For Peter To Reciprocate Her Love Is A Masochist's Dream; A Late Revelation Concerning Peter's Unavailability Is Unsustained By The Wispy Plot. Like Justine, This Debut Lacks Definition, But That Becomes One Of Its Strengths: A Portrait Of A Perceptive Yet Lost Woman Who Traces Her Own Self-destruction With The Same Patient Helplessness With Which She Loves. (july) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.</p>