DAVID SCHMAHMANN
NIBBLE & KUHN
An unraveling law firm. An unwinnable court case. An unworkable love. Derek Dover has it all.
Derek’s up for partner at Nibble & Kuhn just as that most proper of Boston law firms comically tries to 'rebrand' itself for the Google era. Pompous and arbitrary, the ruling junta of partners saddles him with a high visibility lawsuit just weeks before trial. The diligent young attorney arranges things so that Maria Parma, a new associate in the firm for whom he’s fallen hard, also gets named to the case. Maria, in turn, can't keep her hands off Derek, but it's complicated because she's engaged to someone else.
As Derek prepares his case on behalf of seven young victims of an industrial polluter, his anxieties about his career and his torments over Maria's mixed messages only increase. Have his eccentric WASP superiors handed him a 'toxic' case to ruin his chances of becoming a partner? How can he get his opponents to settle – an outcome the presiding judge all but demands - unless his unorthodox 'expert witnesses' perform with enough gravitas to match that of the other side with its Harvard Medical School scientist? Will Nibble & Kuhn survive the partners’ spectacularly bad business judgment? Does it even matter to Derek, given that his looming fiasco of a trial and indiscretions with Maria seem set to sink any chance he may have had at partnership?
Ultimately, Derek sets in motion a line of inquiry that spins events entirely out of the control of the judge, the jury, and any and all attorneys.
EMPIRE SETTINGS
(winner of the John Gardner Fiction Book Award for “the most outstanding book of fiction published in 2001 by a small or university press.”)
“Unexpected, even unforgettable… [an] artful battle against cultural and historical amnesia.”
—Washington Post
"Thoughtful, affecting and skillfully constructed ... Schmahmann's portrayal of South Africa, past and present, is as poignant - and nuanced - as his delineation of the characters and their relationships."
—Los Angeles Times
"A marvelous and painful psalm on love of both people and places."
—Providence Sunday Journal
"Through inflection and carefully observed physical gestures he performs little miracles of characterization.... Schmahmann's account captures beautifully the truth and tenderness of the kind of love that can happen between two people only when they are very young."
—Trenton Times
“A finely crafted, deeply satisfying debut novel…, brilliantly conceived.”
—Boston Sunday Herald
“It bristles with tension and suspense and is remarkably authentic. You can smell the sea and the decay, and almost touch the people, who are so real.”
—Desmond M. Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus, Nobel Laureate
“Teaches us volumes about hello and goodbye, holding on and letting go.”
—The Christian Science Monitor
“All of Schmahmann’s characters … long for a past that can no longer exist – a longing he elucidates with bittersweet grace”
—The Baltimore Sun
“[An] artful, moving novel …displaying a sure touch with character, plot and atmosphere alike.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
"A powerful, engrossing story about a time and place that many would rather forget...the author is masterful at manipulating the various voices. He creates the personalities and circumstances of each character through their speech patterns...and expressions of guilt and grief, bigotry and ambiguity, fury and tenderness."
—Knight Ridder Newspapers
"A Striking first novel.... Schmahmann brings characters, family tensions and racial complexities rambunctiously alive in just a line or two."
—Seattle Times
"An engaging and poignant account of forbidden love .... An altogether promising debut."
—Publishers Weekly