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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
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THE FALCONER

Dana Czapnik

Debut novel about an usual young woman - a street-smart basketball phenomeon with an unrequited love for her best friend - an unforgettable, distinct coming of age story set in early 90s New York City.
New York, 1993. Seventeen-year-old Lucy Adler, a street-smart, trash-talking baller, is often the only girl on the public courts. At turns quixotic and cynical, insecure and self-possessed, Lucy is in unrequited love with her best friend and pick-up teammate Percy, scion to a prominent New York family who insists he wishes to resist upper crust fate.

As she navigates this complex relationship with all its youthful heartache, Lucy is seduced by a different kind of lifeone less consumed by conventional success and the approval of men. A pair of provocative female artists living in what remains of New York's bohemia invite her into their world, but soon even their paradise begins to show cracks.

Told in vibrant, quicksilver prose, The Falconer is a "wholly original coming-of-age story" (Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists), providing a snapshot of the city and America through the eyes of the children of the baby boomers grappling with privilege and the fading of radical hopes. New York Times bestselling author Claire Messud calls The Falconer an "exhilarating debut," adding that "Dana Czapnik's frank heroine has a voice, and a perspective, you won't soon forget."
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Book

Published 2019-01-29 by Atria

Book

Published 2019-01-29 by Atria

Comments

Dana Czapnik's first novel THE FALCONER is a deeply affecting tale of a young woman coming of age in a man's world. All the characters feel authentic and unique, and its protagonist, Lucy Adler, jumps right off the page. I've never read a character quite like her in fiction - a deeply intelligent basketball player with a sharp, incisive take on the changing city and country in which she lives. Lucy's journey into adulthood will be especially resonant with today's readers.

Dana Czapnik's first novel is an unsentimental education in all that is urgent, soulful and intimate. As much the portrait of an era as it is the portrait of an adolescence, this is a crossover novel that will thrill readers of all generations. Thoughtful, philosophical Lucy Adler arrives in the wake of Holden Caulfield, and she holds the mantle with ease. THE FALCONER captures the grueling, exhilarating pathos of one woman's quest to become whole. A wonderful debut.