Yuri Kruman, Reading from Debut Novel, "Returns and Exchanges"

Book description: Five young New Yorkers brought together on the verge of greatness - by the chance of fate - do battle to transcend through pangs of City grit and pleasure, to achieve. Helen, a modern woman caught between professions, men and fears, has a stark choice to make. Jacob, a violin prodigy, frantically writes a symphony to win his love and prove himself. Conrad, ambitious Texan in New York, catches a break beyond his wildest dreams, with just one caveat. A childhood sin he can't expunge takes playboy-at-his-peak Lisandro from dream life to damning nightmare, half a world away. Senator's son and journalist Aidan risks everything for story that will make him great. In the dark heart of Africa, against the Russian winter and the heel of influence, in the East-West bazaar of choice and genius mind of Jacob Frenkel, the mettle of a generation will be forged.

Yuri Kruman's secong book "The Egypt In My Looking Glass" - about a Russian Jewish family in New York - will be released next month by Author House.

Yuri Kruman was born in Moscow and moved to Kentucky at nine, where he grew up. He studied neuroscience and anthropology at UPenn before receiving his law degree from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He has worked on Wall Street and in healthcare. A Shapiro Family fellow and a COJECO Blueprint fellow, Yuri lives with his wife and daughter in Manhattan.