Heroic Measures, Paperback

The basis for the major motion picture 5 Flights Up starring Diane Keaton and Morgan Freeman.

New York City is on high alert--a gasoline truck is "stuck" in the Midtown tunnel and the driver has fled. Through panic and gridlock, Alex and Ruth must transport their beloved old dachshund--whose back legs are suddenly paralyzed--to the animal hospital, using a cutting board as a stretcher. But this is also the weekend when Alex and Ruth must sell the apartment in which they have lived for most of their adult lives. Over the course of forty-eight hours, as the mystery of the missing truck driver terrorizes the city and the dachshund's life hangs in the balance, the bidding war over their apartment becomes a barometer for collective hope and despair. Told in shifting points of view--Alex's, Ruth's, and the little dog's--Heroic Measures is a moving, deft novel about urban anxiety and the love that deepens over years.

About the Author:

Jill Ciment was born in Montreal, Canada. She is the author of the novels Act of God, The Tattoo Artist, Teeth of the Dog, and The Law of Falling Bodies; a collection of stories, Small Claims; and a memoir, Half a Life. She has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts, a NEA Japan Fellowship Prize, two New York State Fellowships for the Arts, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Ciment is a professor at the University of Florida. She lives in Gainesville, Florida.