Heroic Measures (Vintage Contemporaries)

The basis for the major motion picture 5 Flights Up starring Diane Keaton and Morgan Freeman. New York City is on high alert–a gasoline truck is “stuck” in the Midtown tunnel and the driver has fled. Through panic and gridlock, Alex and Ruth must transport their beloved old dachshund–whose back legs are suddenly paralyzed–to the animal hospital, using a cutting board as a stretcher. But this is also the weekend when Alex and Ruth must sell the apartment in which they have lived for most of their adult lives. Over the course of forty-eight hours, as the mystery of the missing truck driver terrorizes the city and the dachshund’s life hangs in the balance, the bidding war over their apartment becomes a barometer for collective hope and despair. Told in shifting points of view–Alex’s, Ruth’s, and the little dog’s–Heroic Measures is a moving, deft novel about urban anxiety and the love that deepens over years.