The Dismantling

Zusatztext 49437354 Informationen zum Autor Brian Deleeuw Klappentext How much of yourself are you willing to sell? At twenty-five, Simon Worth is a med school dropout, facing the grim reality of failure and massive student loans. Left with few options, he becomes an organ broker for a black-market organization, matching cash-strapped donors with recipients whose time on the transplant list is running out. Tasked with finding a donor for Lenny Pellegrini, a severely depressed ex-NFL player who's been drinking himself to death, Simon's luck appears to change when he's contacted by Maria Campos, a young woman desperate for cash whose liver happens to be the perfect match. The transplant goes according to plan . . . until soon afterward, when Maria disappears and Lenny makes a cruel and destructive decision. As Simon's world becomes increasingly dangerous, he learns of an unspeakable secret from Maria's past and must decide, against his better moral judgment, that the only way he'll survive is to trust her. Chilling and fast-paced, The Dismantling questions the meaning of atonement and asks how you can reconcile the person you once were-and the person you want to be-with the person you are today. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to Richard Abate and Melissa Kahn for sticking with this project far longer than might have seemed reasonable. Thank you, also and profoundly, to Liz Stein for your willingness to take a gamble and your tenacity in seeing that gamble all the way through. Thanks to Katie Arnold-Ratliff and Christopher Beha, both of whom read many more iterations of this novel than anybody should rightly be subjected to. Your suggestions and guidance were indispensable, as always, and you are as good friends as you are readers. I’m also grateful to my friend Dr. Lauren McCollum for generously sharing the story of her own liver donation. And thank you, finally, to the Corporation of Yaddo for providing the welcome time and space to complete a crucial portion of this book. SIMON looked again at the girl’s photo on his screen. There was no denying it: she might as well be Lenny’s younger sister. Besides the Mediterranean coloring, there was a certain leonine quality to the face, the strong jaw, canted eyes. The photo was from the shoulders up, the background a tan stucco wall presumably somewhere in Los Angeles. She looked directly into the camera, smiling with her mouth only. He wondered if she was an actress, or trying to become one. She was young enough; pretty enough too, or nearly. I hope I’ve understood your company’s website correctly, her first e-mail had begun. I’m twenty-two years old. I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. I live a healthy lifestyle, or as healthy as you can in LA when you don’t have much money. This has been a difficult year for me financially, which is why I’m interested in the kind of deal I think you’re offering. Please be in touch with more of the specifics. Yrs., Maria Campos. Simon had replied, through Health Solutions’ encrypted server, in the usual manner: direct, impersonal, detailed. He told her that if her blood type was a match, she would need to undergo some tests—first blood work, a physical, and a CT scan in Los Angeles, and then if these were satisfactory, liver function tests at the hospital here in New York. Next would be the screening interview. After all that would come, if she passed, the surgery itself and a few days of in-patient follow-up. Then she could go back home, and that would be the end of it. If she was still interested, she should send him the record of a recent physical examination, a photograph, and a phone number. He didn’t mention money yet. The next morning she had responded: Before I wrote, I thought about what you might need, so I got these records ready. The photo request is weird—this isn’t a date—but here you go. You can reach me at 562-820...

Product details

• Authors: Brian DeLeeuw
• Publisher: Plume USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 28.04.2015
• EAN: 9780142181744
• ISBN: 978-0-14-218174-4
• No. of pages: 288
• Dimensions: 138 mm x 205 mm x 15 mm
• Series: Plume
• Subject: Fiction > Suspense