Heroic Measures

Literary awards: Los Angeles Times Book Prize Nominee for Fiction (2009)

Author: Jill Ciment

Paperback | August 27, 2015

Moving on is never easy.

Ruth and Alex Cohen are saying goodbye to their beloved New York apartment – because how can they turn down a million dollars? Tomorrow they will open their doors to the eclectic, maddening house-hunters of this city. But Manhattan is in chaos; an unmarked petrol truck is blocking the city’s main tunnel, spreading fears of terrorism and threatening to disrupt a sacred bidding war over the ageing couple’s home.

Across town, their adored old dachshund Dorothy lies sick in a hospital cage. She doesn’t understand why she has been abandoned – all she knows is that Death is coming for her, and she isn’t ready.

Unravelling over a long weekend, Heroic Measures is a bittersweet, comic tale of what it means to grow old in a world you no longer recognise. It is also a gentle paean to New York, to fleeting beauty, and to holding on to what we love with all our might.