1939. The tenth year of the Great Depression in America. Europe teeters on the brink of war. In Atlantic City, New Jersey - a seashore resort town that springs to life every summer - Jack Laurel comes of age.
At 15, Jack's life is turned upside down by an almost magical convergence of people and events. A mysterious boardwalk entertainer inspires a love of literature, a feud with neighborhood bullies escalates, and innocence is lost. Jack stumbles into commodities trading with two men: one a reclusive mystic, the other a charismatic pitchman and mathematical savant. The musings of a boardwalk fortuneteller set the three partners up to reap unimagined profits - but a house of cards is about to come down around them and, with it, the wrath of an iron-fisted crime boss.
In his first novel, J. Louis Yampolsky evokes the days when Atlantic City was the "Playground of the World" - the home of gilded Arabesque hotels, parades, pageants, and the famous Steel Pier. A Boardwalk Story is a startling debut from a remarkable new voice in American fiction.
