Returns and Exchanges
Yuri Kruman, 2013
Author House
426 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781491813843
Summary
Five young New Yorkers brought together on the verge of greatness—by the chance of fate—do battle to transcend through pangs of City grit and pleasure, to achieve.
Helen, a modern woman caught between professions, men and fears, has a stark choice to make. Jacob, a violin prodigy, frantically writes a symphony to win his love and prove himself. Conrad, ambitious Texan in New York, catches a break beyond his wildest dreams, with just one caveat. A childhood sin he can't expunge takes playboy-at-his-peak Lisandro from dream life to damning nightmare, half a world away. Senator's son and journalist Aidan risks everything for story that will make him great.
In the dark heart of Africa, against the Russian winter and the heel of influence, in the East-West bazaar of choice and genius mind of Jacob Frenkel, the mettle of a generation will be forged.
Author Bio
• Birth—April 13, 1983
• Where—Moscow, Russia
• Raised—Lexington, Kentucy, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Pennsylvania; J.D.,
Benjamin Cardozo School of Law
• Currently—lives in New York, New York
Yuri Kruman was born in Moscow and, at the age of nine, moved to Kentucky where he grew up. He studied neuroscience and anthropology at University of Pennsylvania before receiving his law degree from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He has worked on Wall Street and in healthcare. He lives with his wife and daughter in Manhattan. (From the author.)
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Discussion Questions
1. List some of the classical and modern euphemisms for European/"Western" civilization found in the book
2. What are some of Jacob Frenkel's motivations for writing a symphony?
3. What would one conclude about millenials from this book?
4. Is Conrad's experience in New York a wild success, a sell-out's dream, just plain fate, or all of the above?
5. What do we learn about the creative process from Jacob Frenkel's experience in writing a symphony?
6. How does a modern woman like Helen Silkin manage to navigate the multiple pressures of professional success, marriage, her parents' immigrant dreams, pressures on an only child, desire to see and experience the world, plus the weight of generations and her own idea of what success entails? Does she, indeed, manage?
7. What does it take for a famous man's son to step out from his shadow? Can he ever?
8. What are we to learn, if anything, about the ever-dying, beleaguered Western civilization from the events of Berlin in this book that New York fails to teach?
(Questions provided courtesy of the author.)