Calihan - i read Skin Privilege recently too. Definitely one of Karin's best.
I just this minute finished 'Between Two Rivers' by Nicholas Rinaldi. It is about the people who live and work in an upscale apartment block called Echo Terrace, which is a couple of blocks from the Trade Center in NYC. The book has been called a 9-11 book, but most of it is not about 9-11. The book starts around 1992, and takes us from 92/93 to Sept 11 2001. Much of the book deals with the lives of various residents of Echo Terrace, all of whom are very human, and are in one way or another quirky. There is Maggie Sowle, who makes amazing quilts and is mourning for her husband Henry. There is Nora Abernooth, who is mourning for her husband too, and who collects animals - birds, cobras, monkeys, and her niece, Angela Crespi who moves to Echo Terrace. There are Muhta and Abdul Saad, an Arabic/Muslim father and son, Muhta is a spice merchant, Abdul wants to be an undertaker. There is Theo Tattafruge, a plastic surgeon. There is Farro Fescu, the concierge, who watches all of these these people, and who has his own story. The book tells of these people's, and others' various and diverse daily lives and histories - for example there is the story of Karl Vogel, who was a German bomber in WW 2, and Henry Falcon, who made it big in frozen foods, and there are smaller but equally interesting histories - Nora remembers her honeymoon, Theo a visit to Papua New Guinea. The book also tells of how all these people's lives interconnect.
The shadow of the Trade Center looms over Echo Terrace, and the towers have a definite presence throughout much of the book - many of the residents work there, or go there for meetings, or are seen looking at them. Also, the book deals with the '93 bombing, and how that affects the residents, and, right at the end, with 9-11 itself. The 9-11 scenes are incredible, very realistic, the horror, pain, but also the humanity of that day are excellently conveyed, and the final image in the book is lasting and touching. But despite this, the book can really be read as a book about New York and New Yorkers, and about the nature of human life - how it is both mundane and bizarre, cruel and beautiful, and about the interconnectedness of our lives, and how our society is made up of very different people and how these people are brought together, not just by tragedy, but by simple, everyday events.
It is very, very good.
he's a great author 
