In THE MORNING SIDE OF THE HILL, Ezra E. Fitz’ debut novella, he asks readers: What if you anted up and kicked in everything you had on a belief, a hope, a dream, on faith, and you lost? This is one of the questions facing Willie and Mo, the two insecure, incomplete protagonists that was inspired by – and is an homage to – William Faulkner’s classic novel The Wild Palms. As you read on, the twin tales gather like a storm to an exhilarating ferocity, culminating in a violent flood of passions that none of the characters can control, and which threatens to drown them all. Faulkner fans may think they know what the end holds for these four characters, but rest assured . . . the culmination of THE MORNING SIDE OF THE HILL exposes an unexpected coincidence that Faulkner may have hinted at but never fully explored. Cover Art: Vagabond.
Contributors
Introduction by Ernesto Quiñonez
ERNESTO QUIÑONEZ is an acclaimed novelist, essayist, screenplay writer, and oral storyteller for the Moth. He was raised in Spanish Harlem, New York City, by a communist father from Ecuador and a Jehovah’s Witness mother. He is a product of public education from kindergarten to his Masters at the City College of New York where he studied under Walter Mosley. He is a Sundance Writer’s Lab fellow and last appeared in the “Blackout” episode of PBS American Experience. He is currently an associate professor at Cornell University’s MFA program.
Here's What People Are Saying
“In the novel THE MORNING SIDE OF THE HILL, a character comments that his restaurant has ‘got a menu as diverse as the clientele.’ The same could be said of this first work of fiction by Ezra E. Fitz. This love story has a little bit for everyone. Crisp dialogue for any lovers of Elmore Leonard crime novels. A lively New York Latino neighborhood to put one in mind of Junot Diaz’s work. And a transcendent ending one might expect from a Graham Greene novel. Mr. Fitz has written a true delight to read, populated with characters you want to follow all the way through to the end.” ~Joe Loya, author of The Man Who Outgrew His Prison Cell: Confessions of a Bank Robber (2004)
“THE MORNING SIDE OF THE HILL by Ezra E. Fitz is a study in delicious contrasts: it’s gritty yet lyrical, heartfelt yet heartbreaking, highbrow yet street-smart. A love letter to Morningside Heights and to Crown Heights and so many places in between, it’s a tale of tough decisions, fatal mistakes, the struggle of rebirth, and the immutability of the past. Brimming with enviable depth, elegance, and an intriguing, satisfying ending, it was a pleasure to read.” ~Sara Shepard, New York Times bestselling author
“Not all writers are created equal or start fi nding art in air-conditioned workshops. Ezra E. Fitz (now that’s a literary name, and it’s a real one) started out as a translator and began to write and rewrite books from the inside. In a way, with THE MORNING SIDE OF THE HILL he is still doing that: translating, interpreting, and explaining to the rest of us his story, his hybrid-view of the world, of a New York that’s not cool or gentrified. Fitz has created two characters that are totally and completely contemporary masculine: insecure, adrift, broken and incomplete. Ginsburg howled once at how the best minds of his generation were lost to madness. In Fitz twenty-first century, the best minds and souls are eternal works-in-progress that are lost to indecision, self-doubt and the anxious romantic idea of becoming anything except what they are now.” ~Alberto Fuguet, author of The Movies of My Life: A Novel and Shorts (1975)
“There’s something of Ishiguro in this novel: it’s introspective, brooding, heartrending, yet never pretentious. In the end, an excellent first novel. I wish I had written something like this.” ~Eloy Urroz, author of La mujer del novelista (2014), Friccion (2010) and The Obstacles (2006)
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