Lech

A mother recovering from an abortion in a Borscht Belt
rental. An eccentric aging landlord, haunted by a mysterious death. A
grief-stricken Hasidic drug dealer. A scheming real estate agent looking for
her break, her dogged daughter longing for her way out (specifically, a career
as a human mermaid), and her addict boyfriend mired in it.






These lives--strangers, neighbors, family, friends--entwine
and separate over the course of one fevered upstate summer, in a haunting and
hilarious debut novel by acclaimed author Sara Lippmann. In her inimitable prose, she mercilessly explores the predatory side of human nature through
conflicts of faith, trauma, desire, belonging, and longing--the particulars of
Judaism and feminism, parenting and partying, small-town life and big
blundering dreams, as well as the timeless question: How do we carry on?