Costa Blanca

Raymond Fraser - best known as a journalist, and someone who was praised by Alden Nowlen as "one of the most gifted writers" in the country, has written a novella set in Spain, Boston, Toronto and the east coast of Canada. It is Raymond Fraser's fifth book of fiction, and like so much of his writing, it is filled with an unforgettable cast of characters: a superannuated hooker, a self-made tonsorial entrepreneur, a youth tangled in the shame of ignorance and poverty. Into this mix, Fraser draws us a picture of a ill-starred reunion of childhood sweethearts, showing us an alcoholic writer's search for a Spanish fantasy and a cigar-chewing ex-con beguiled by the bright lights of Tin Pan Alley.... It is also provocative and unfailingly entertaining.