"Closing Costs" A real Manhattan real estate novel

Last year at one of our weekly sales meetings we had a special guest Seth Margolis who gave a reading from his latest novel "Closing Costs".

"Closing Costs" is a novel about today's Manhattan real estate market through the rise and fall of the character's fortunes. Real estate turns out to be their only real asset.

"Closing Costs" recently came out in paperback by St. Martins Press. In the current issue of The Real Deal Linden Lim gives "Closing Costs" a rave review and reports that the novel has generated interest with filmakers. I can't wait for the movie.

Margolis, a long-time Manhattanite is married to an agent in my office Carole Zelner. The lead character Lucinda Wells, one of Manhatttan's most successful and ruthless agents is not based on his wife Carole. Although Carole is a successful agent, she is way too nice to be ruthless. Besides Carole was not even in real estate when Seth began writing the novel.

One of the characters Peggy Gimmel decides to sell her classic seven apartment on the upper west side that she bought decades ago for a few thousand dollars and discovers it's worth almost $2 million.

Seth said while he was writing the novel the market was moving faster than he could write and he had to up the price a few times in rewrites. I don't know if he upped the price again between the hard cover edition and the recent paperback. The Manhattan market is still moving. Peggy Gimmel's classic seven today is worth even more.

The sudden windfall from selling the apartment triggers a cascade of unexpected events into the dizzying orbit of Lucinda Wells. Peggy is not the only one at Lucinda's mercy. There's the technology entrepreneur struggling to salvage his sinking company while gut renovating his home. The socialite exiled from Park Avenue to the pull-out sofa of her parents' West side apartment.

These are just some of the characters whose lives intersect in unlikely ways, all of them overwhelmed by the rocketing real estate market and the hard-charging broker who holds the keys to their futures. A page turner filled with penthouse envy, booms and busts, up and coming millionaires and down and out billionaires.

In New York it's all about where you live.

"You are what you eat, it was said -- well, that might have been true at one time, when only the rich could afford leg of mutton or suckling pig or lobster thermidor or whatever it was the rich used to eat. But nowadays, anyone could pop into Zabar's and pony up a few shekels for Scotch salmon or foie gras. Clothes make the man? Not when knockoffs, perfectly good knockoffs at that, were hawked on half the street corners in Midtown. No, today you are where you live. Shelter makes the man. With the right outfit, genuine or not, you could look like a million bucks anywhere in public, and you could eat like a millionaire at least once in a while with a decent credit line on your gold card. But you couldn't fake it in your home. A home was your skin, your true face to the outside world." Seth Margolis "Closing Costs"

For the full review and more fabulous excerpts read Linden Lim's Tales from the housing bubble in The Real Deal.

Buy "Closing Costs" at Amazon.com

Buy a classic seven on the upper west side or any other Manhattan Home here.