Buy Me Love

(Paperback)

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Description

Described by Publishers Weekly as Cooley's "sharp latest", "Cooley has a sure hand in probing the intersection of artistic ambition and money. This hopeful take is sure to move readers."

In Brooklyn, New York, in 2005, Ellen Portinari buys a lottery ticket on a whim; not long after, she realizes shes won a hundred-million-dollar jackpot. With a month to redeem the ticket, she tells no one but her alcoholic brothera talented composer whose girlfriend has died in a terrorist attack abroadabout her preposterous good luck.

As the clock ticks, Ellen caroms from incredulity to giddiness to dread as she tries to reckon with the potential consequences of her win. She becomes unexpectedly involved with a man and boy shes met at her local gym. While she grapples with the burden of secret-keeping and the tug of a new intimacy, a Brooklyn street artist named Blair Talpa is contending with her own challenges: a missing brother, an urge to make art that will derange orbits, and a lack of money.

En route to redeem the lottery ticket, Ellen finds her prospects entwining by chance with Blairswhich allows Ellen to reimagine lucks relation to loss, and the reader to revel in surprise.

Reviews

"Buy Me Loveis a terrific novel about the eternal confusions of money and our beloved notions of free willas they play out for one woman with a lottery ticket. It has a superbly believable romance, crooked family histories, and a sneaky double plot. Readers drawn in by its sharpness and originality will find themselves richly rewarded by its striking turns."Joan Silber, author ofImprovement

"Moneyits seductive force, the love of it, its weird immaterial nature, the good it can do, and the risk that having it could obliterate who you areis everyones suave adversary in Martha Cooleys penetrating novel. She has drawn each of these characters with striking uniqueness. They could all use a bit more money. But its the possibility of suddenly having a lot more that fills the story with such danger and hope. If you got everything you wanted, would you still want it And would you still be you"Salvatore Scibona, author ofThe Volunteer

"What a whip-smart, tender, and funny novel dealing with luck, fate, relationships, the whole deal! So enjoyable and wonderfully, wonderfully written! I can see this book appealing to so many types of readers!"Mark Haber, Bezos Books in Houston, TX

Author Bio

Martha Cooley is the author of two novelsThe Archivist, a national bestseller also published in a dozen foreign markets, and Thirty-Three Swoonsand a memoir, Guesswork. She co-translated Antonio Tabucchis story collection Time Ages in a Hurry. Her essays, short fiction, and co-translations have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books and numerous leading literary journals. She directs the MFA in Creative Writing at Adelphi University, where she is a Professor of English. Prior to Adelphi, she taught for fifteen years in the Bennington Writing Seminars. She lives in Forest Hills (Queens), New York, and Castiglione del Terziere, Italy.