Adam Langer, author of Crossing California, reads from his new book, Ellington Boulevard: A Novel in A-Flat. 

Centering on the fate of one apartment before, during and after the height of New York’s real estate boom, Ellington Boulevard’s characters include the Tenant and his dog; the Landlord, a recovered alcoholic and womanizer; the Broker, an out-of-work actor and the Broker’s new boyfriend.  There’s also the Buyer, who falls in love with the Tenant; the Buyer’s Husband, a disaffected graduate student; and the Buyer’s Husband’s Girlfriend, a children’s book writer with a tragic past. 

With his trademark humor and poignancy Langer presents a story of why people come to a city they can’t afford, take jobs they despise, sacrifice love, find love and eventually become the people they never thought they’d be - for better and for worse.

Recorded Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at Chicago Public Library.