Description
In New York City, 1980, Danny Ferraro believes he is living “the life”: late-night discos, call girls, and hits of cocaine between pick-up games across the city. But it all comes crashing down when his luck runs out and he finds himself in debt to the mob. Frightening and fascinating in its depictions of drug-fueled, sex-infused, winner-take-all poker bouts, Vetere’s compelling novel illuminates the shadowy base of the eighties mob scene, as his anti-hero struggles to escape the downward spiral of depravity.
Champagne and Cocaine: a novel by Richard Vetere
ISBN: 978-1-941110-29-4; 5.25″ x 8″, 210 pages, Trade Paper; Retail $15.95
Publication date: Tuesday, May 17, 2016
For wholesale and trade orders, please visit our distributor PGW
High Praise for Champagne and Cocaine
“Evocative and gritty as only New York can be, Richard Vetere’s Champagne and Cocaine is testimony that intelligent men spiraling through destructive choices can make for a hell of a read.”–Robert H. Patton, author, Patriot Pirates
“I devoured it.”–Tony Danza, actor
“Vetere’s page-turning Champagne and Cocaine oozes vibrancy, written by an author who knew New York City at that time well enough to put his own stamp on its origins.” –Judge Edwin Torres, author, Carlito’s Way and Q&A
“More than a novel, Champagne and Cocaine is a smooth read, a meditation on the dangers of mixing reality with art in New York’s disco era. Ferraro is one of Vetere’s greatest characters.” –Fred Gardaphe, author, From Wiseguys to Wise Men
“Vetere’s page turning Champagne and Cocaine oozes vibrantly, written by an author who knew New York City at that time well enough to put his own stamp on its origins.” –Judge Edwin Torres, author, Carlito’s Way
“An insightful window into the life of one man’s struggles with the challenges he faces when he must choose between the night life of gambling, drugs, and lots of sex and the contemplative life of the writer and teacher.” –Anthony Julian Tamburri, author, Re-reading Italian Americana
“Champagne and Cocaine is everything the title promises: heady, dangerous, and utterly addictive. Bringing an astute literary sensibility to a noirish premise, Vetere paints a beautifully gritty portrait of New York in its disco heyday. For those of us longing for that vanished city of filth and vice, Vetere’s new novel is a gift straight from the graffitied heavens.” –Stefan Merrill Block, author, The Story of Forgetting