Publications
Angels Crest
Living in a small town in the mountains of California, Ethan Denton is a lucky man. Most things have gone his way, and being granted full custody of Nate, his young son, has given him a near-perfect life. On a crisp winter morning just before the start of deer season, Ethan and Nate set off together to discover the beauties of the forest. As he parks the truck, Ethan spots a pair of magnificent bucks and, eager to take a closer look, leaves Nate asleep in the car seat, a brief, impulsive decision any parent might make. When he returns only a few minutes later, the door of the truck is open and Nate is nowhere to be seen. Ethan and other members of the community search for the missing three-year-old, their fears rising as an unexpected blizzard blankets the woods.
Imbued with extraordinary literary and emotional power, ANGELS CREST explores the consequences of Ethan’s act on his own life and on the people around him. Leslie Schwartz creates a rich cast of characters, a community of vibrant and unforgettable people whose reactions to the tragedy reflect the complexities of human emotions: Ethan’s ex-wife and ex-best friend, who must deal with their own wounds; an older Jewish judge, whose concern and involvement is colored by recent problems with his own son; a middle-aged lesbian couple, one of whom is a beekeeper; and a blind minister, all moved by the need to somehow make sense of the inexplicable.
Reviews for Angels Crest
Los Angeles Times Bestseller and Book Sense 76 Pick
“This beautiful, moving novel works brilliantly as a study of a tragedy and the various characters’ reactions to the tragedy itself, as well as how it causes them to reexamine their own lives.”
—Booklist (starred)
“Compelling...Precise, lyrical...truly moving.”
—The Washington Post Book World
“...A story that lingers, and is not easily forgotten, one that focuses on the communion of heart and mind...”
—BookLoons Reviews
“This book demonstrates how a tragic event can...bring people together, soften hearts, drive people apart and leave everyone searching for answers. After reading this, you too might find answer or peace for your past.”
—Shakefire Review
“I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book so touching and yet so compelling...[Angels Crest] is an intense...utterly beautiful novel.”
—Carly Hope/Empowerment4Women
“Set in a mountainous area of California and full of unforgettable characters, Schwartz’s emotionally powerful novel is resonant with insight and grace, and the story remains with readers long after the last page.”
—Katrina Denza, The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, NC
Reviews for Jumping the Green
Winner James Jones Literary Society Award for Best First Novel
“An extraordinarily impressive newcomer surveys the emotional riptide of obsession and its release in art...an intriguingly subtle treatise on sex and death and the shadow companion of love. First timer Schwartz is a talent to watch.”
—Kirkus Review (Starred)
“In a final violent act...we are reminded of the destructive forces of love, familial and romantic that drive even the sanest to the edge of madness. It is a testament to Schwartz’s gifts as a writer that the novel transcends clichés of violence and ultimately becomes a tale of survival, even in the most harrowing of circumstances.”
—Washington Post
“[Schwartz] gets the overheated atmosphere of the fringe art world just right in this erotic story of a grieving woman steering a dangerous course between sex and love, pain and pleasure, victimhood and survival.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Leslie Schwartz’s novel, Jumping the Green is a provocative debut...told with a heat-hazed elegance and subtle control.”
—Elle
“This harshly beautiful novel of sister-love and sick sex is a must-read.”
—Mademoiselle
“A superbly written debut.”
—Time Out
Buddy Girl’s One Love
“My father and Angela are sitting on the couch. Angela is an enormous black woman with the face of angels, nymphs and fairies. My father is thin, with a shocking tuft of gray hair and long, slender fingers, like a woman’s. I cannot picture the two of them engaged in something as disorderly as sex, though side by side on the couch, in a graceful state of inertia, they are perfect.
My father’s works are on the coffee table. Angela is drifting off. I smoke a joint, not yet involved in the headier side of my father’s preference for heroin. Las Vegas worries the fleas on his back”.
Blue Winter
“It was spring when they found the bodies. A man and a woman, with their arms wrapped around a child, as if they could all protect themselves from death. They were found in a drift of snow that had not yet melted, beneath the shade of a giant sequoia. Because of the way the snow was melting, the child’s blue mittens were clearly visible.
Paul, Monica’s husband, called the authorities. Being a small town, it didn’t take long for the locals to hear about the bodies and soon the North Grove was buzzing with people. They all stood around the spot where the bodies had been removed, and those that arrived early enough could still see the dead people’s imprints in the snow.
One of the locals said, “It reminds me of those chalk drawings the police make on the pavement around people who jump out of windows.”
The Bridge of Us
“I had developed strange cravings. I was driven mad with desire by the scent of cleaning fluids and the taste of toothpaste. I wanted to drink Spic N Span straight from the bottle and squirt lemon fresh Lysol counter cleaner right into my mouth. Colgate toothpaste drove me batty. I brushed for long, indulgent periods throughout the day whether I needed it or not. And I was so flush with raw, engorged blood vessels that the Kegel exercises the birthing instructor told us to do 500 times a day brought on earth-shattering orgasms, though I don’t think they were supposed to.”