Heroic Measures

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.

Jill Cimentwas born in Montreal, Canada. She is the author of Small Claims, a collection of short stories and novellas; the novels The Law of Falling Bodies, Teeth of the Dog, The Tattoo Artist, and Heroic Measures; and a memoir, Half a Life. She has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, among them a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, two New York Foundation for the Arts fellowships, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and a Guggenheim fellowship. Ciment is a professor at the University of Florida. She lives in Gainesville, Florida, and Brooklyn, New York. Pushkin will publish her latest novel Act of God in 2016.