National Network for Equitable Library Service

Jerry Levy’s gritty, urban tales are driven by arresting prose and engaging human drama. Urban Legend is psychologically intense with characters attempting to overcome personal loss in peculiar ways. In “Paris is a Woman” a man hopes that, by escaping to Paris, he will learn to manage his uncontrollable emotions; devastated by the death of his fiancée, a man in “The Golem of New York” enlists the aid of a rabbi schooled in Kaballah to help him erect a golem in her image; the protagonist in “Stolen Words” uncovers a trove of unpublished literary works that he hopes will result in fame and fortune; and, in “Phoenix Rising” a sculptress about to commit suicide rescues a cat from a busy highway and instantly gains notoriety. “Bleakly comic, these tales engage as well as provoke.” — Ann Ireland, author of The Blue Guitar (2013) “These eccentrically compelling stories pull the reader deep into the rivers of the unconscious where, for Levy’s characters, the impossible is likely to submerge the mundane, often with drastic results — the stuff of urban legend, indeed.” — Barbara Lambert, author of The Whirling Girl (2012) “Jerry Levy’s Urban Legend is folklore from the edge. The characters in these whimsical stories mine life’s odd corners for inventive ways to make sense of their lives. A confident, engaging debut. — Sally Cooper, author of Tell Everything (2008)