 About Charnow:
Steven Charnow grew up in New York City, including some memorable years in Brooklyn. After graduating from Queens College, he worked as a social worker for the NYC Bureau of Child Welfare, then joined the Peace Corps, serving two years in Medellin, Colombia. Returning to the United States, he settled in Los Angeles, where he partnered with a composer and wrote song lyrics in English and Spanish. He moved on to writing screenplays and was soon under contract to a film studio producing low-budget features. His first novel, “Charlie Fig and the Lip”, was inspired by his childhood explorations along the marsh shallows of New York City’s Jamaica Bay. When he isn’t running marathons to maintain his sanity, he is writing his next novel. He lives in Santa Monica, California with his wife, Shelley, and his dog, Luke. About His Publication: Charnow's Charlie Fig and the Lip is a stark coming-of-age novel that loops you into the story before you even realize it. To get an idea, here is the synopsis for the book: Aaron Lipstein, “the Lip” to his best friend Charlie Figatelli, (“because you got an answer for everything”), is about to graduate high school at the top of his class. Aaron is looking forward to an uneventful summer before leaving home for college and getting away from his abusive father. When the bullet-riddled, delivery van belonging to Charlie’s father is pulled from a canal flowing into Jamaica Bay, and the police fail to recover Mr. Figatelli’s body, Charlie appeals to Aaron to help him search for it. The boys sail into the bay, following the treacherous currents that carried the body away from the Brooklyn shore. Their leaky boat is soon swamped, stranding them in the marshes and uninhabited islands stretching across the bay. Aaron and Charlie begin a perilous journey back to the mainland. Their struggle through the harsh environment brings them to a harrowing encounter with “the ghost people”, living in a village hidden deep in the marshes. Here, Aaron will learn the startling truth of Mr. Figatelli’s disappearance, and it will transform his perception of the man he respected and admired more than his own father. Charlie Fig and the Lip is a novel rich in imagery and character. A story of fathers and sons, the bonds of friendship, and the loss of childhood innocence rendered in stunning detail of place and time. |