About this item
A tragic accident threatens to unravel two families in this gripping novel of suspense and culture clash set in the Hamptons.Corey Halpern, a local high schooler with a troubled home life, is desperate to leave the Hamptons and start anew somewhere else. His last summer before college, he settles for the escapism he finds in sneaking into neighboring mansions.One night just before Memorial Day weekend, he breaks in to the wrong home at the wrong time: the Sheffield estate, where he and his mother, Gina, work. Under the cover of darkness, Leo Sheffield - a billionaire CEO, patriarch and the owner of the vast lakeside manor - arrives unexpectedly with a companion. After a shocking poolside accident, everything depends on Leo burying the truth before his family and friends arrive for the holiday weekend. Unfortunately for him, Corey saw what happened, as did other eyes in the shadows.Secrecy, obsession and desperation dictate each character's path in this spectacular debut. In a race against time, each critical moment holds life in the balance as Corey, Gina and Leo approach a common breaking point. With an ending as explosive as the Memorial Day fireworks on the island, The East End welcomes a bright new voice in fiction.
About the Author
Jason Allen writes fiction, poetry, and memoir, and is the author of the forthcoming novel The East End (Park Row Books/HarperCollins, May 2019) and the poetry collection A Meditation on Fire (Southeast Missouri State University Press) . He has an MFA from Pacific University and a PhD in literature and creative writing from Binghamton University. He's taught in China, and done at least a dozen coast-to-coast drives across the U.S. He'd like to meet Tom Waits someday and buy him a cup of coffee. He was born in the Green Mountains of Vermont and spent the first year of his life in a log cabin, and then grew up working-class-poor in the Hamptons. He will forever think of Powell's Books in downtown Portland as a sacred space. He currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where he teaches writing.
