About this item
Lenny Chang, the young protagonist of this autobiographical novel, is transplanted from New York City to a suburb on Long Island, and navigates his fractured family in this new, hostile environment. His alcoholic father, a Navy veteran struggling with his unhappy life, dominates and terrorizes his mother who valiantly tries to keep their family intact. Lenny's older brother drifts away from the turmoil while his younger sister attaches herself to Lenny for safety. As Lenny adjusts to this chaotic world in which the family spirals more and more out of control, he withdraws into himself and his martial arts movies, searching for some kind of solace. However, it isn't until Lenny befriends the local marijuana grower and dealer, Sal, that he begins to see a world beyond his own. This unusual friendship sets Lenny on a path toward independence, and becomes the bedrock on which this young boy moves into adulthood, finding the tools for self-reliance and fortitude that will sustain him throughout his life.
About the Author
Leonard Chang was born in New York City, and grew up on Long Island, where he attended the public schools in Merrick. After high school, Leonard studied at Dartmouth College, interned with the Peace Corps in Kingston, Jamaica, and continued his studies in Philosophy at Harvard University, where he graduated with honors. He attended the graduate creative writing program at the University of California at Irvine, and received his Master's of Fine Arts. His first novel, entitled The Fruit 'N Food, was published in 1996 and won the Black Heron Press Award for Social Fiction that year, and is now taught at universities around the world. His second novel, Dispatches from the Cold, won a San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie Award for Literature. He is also the author of a popular and critically-acclaimed noir trilogy, which includes Over the Shoulder, Underkill, and Fade to Clear, a USA Today Summer Reading Pick and a finalist for the Shamus Award. Crossings, his sixth, was published in 2009, and a new novel, Triplines, was just released. His novels have been translated into French, Japanese and Korean, and are regularly studied in literature, sociology and theology courses throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. Recently the U.S. Consulate in Berlin sponsored his multi-city lecture/reading tour of Germany.
In addition to novels, he writes short stories, essays, screenplays and TV. He was a Visiting Distinguished Writer at Mills College, and taught at Antioch University's MFA Program. He's currently a writer/producer for the FX TV show Snowfall.
