L.I.E. (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

“AT ONCE MORDANTLY FUNNY AND ACHINGLY SAD . . . A SOUL MAP FOR MODERN SUBURBIA.”
–SHERI HOLMAN
Bestselling author of The Dress Lodger

Cutting through the landscape, connecting small towns to the world at large, the Long Island Expressway (the L.I.E.) has many exits–and each one tells a story. It’s the late eighties in Long Island, New York, and eighteen-year-old Harlan Kessler plays in a band, parties with friends, and struggles with a family that offers anything but a Kodak moment. The one ray of hope in Harlan’s life is Sarah DeRosa. With her by his side, Harlan just might make the right choices between love and aggression, intimacy and absence, finding himself and losing his mind. . . .

“[AN] ENGAGING DEBUT . . . If we feel we’ve heard enough about the land at malls and cloverleafs, we’re wrong: it’s probably the most authentically American experience there is, a point that Hollander makes in a blur of concrete, exit signs, and self-deprecating hilarity.”
–Los Angeles Times

“REMARKABLE . . . COMPELLING . . . POWERFUL . . . A young man’s head-on collision with the failed American Dream . . . What makes this book one of note is Hollander’s unique storytelling style. . . . You’ll be richly rewarded by an original, edgy experience.”
–Fort Worth Star-Telegram