The Booster
A Novel
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Jillian Siegel is living the quintessential Manhattan life: great clothes, fabulous boyfriend, a job at the hottest ad agency in town. But what nobody knows is that this twenty-nine-year-old has a dark little secret -- one that involves stuffing her oversize Gucci handbag with high-priced designer clothes and leaving the store without paying.
There was once a time when Jillian didn't need to shop (much less steal) to feel whole. But that was long ago -- when her beloved uncle Bingo still owned Loevner's, the elegant Upper East Side department store. When, as a little girl, she spent hours listening to the wisdom of the perfume counter ladies and modeling party dresses for her uncle's impish partner, Alain; when she danced beneath Loevner's magnificent chandelier, found solace in the secret passageways behind its grand facade, and when her mother's prolonged absences were easily forgotten with a new camel-hair coat or a fresh pair of Mary Janes.
And then one day it was all gone. The department store family, the enchanted world, the endless abundance -- pulled out from under her by her jet-setting mother, Lois; by the father she never knew; by the death of Alain, a cherished friend and confidant; and by the man with two first names who orchestrated the corporate takeover of her family's venerable sanctuary.
Now, years later, Jillian cannot seem to make things right no matter how many Chloé blouses come home in her pocketbook. Her "perfect" life is loosely held together with half milligrams of Ativan and stolen cashmere scarves. It's only a matter of time until everything crumbles.
Penned by one of advertising's most influential and provocative writers, this highly anticipated debut is packed with vibrant characters, bristling dialogue, and the rich detail of the author's real-life research into the clandestine world of shoplifting rings. The Booster is a uniquely stylish, deftly woven story about discovering one's true self in the most unexpected of places.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Solow's spectacular debut sounds a warning to fashionista shopaholics while providing a healing catharsis that anyone grieving over the loss of a loved one can appreciate. "It is mine. It is mine. It is mine" is the mantra Jillian Siegel repeats before any major shoplifting expedition, believing her hobby is not a crime but her "birthright." The Upper East Sider's addiction to larceny increases after she loses her ad agency job just before the agency acquires the coveted Loevner's department store account. Loevner's had once been owned by Jillian's dying uncle Bingo, a beloved parental figure. As a little girl in bunny fur, Jillian had appeared in the original ad that defined Loevner's upscale glamour. After Shelly, a needy young drifter whom Jillian meets in jail in the wake of a tourist-trap incident, introduces Jillian into a Peruvian shoplifting ring, Jillian becomes the ring's star American booster. "Designer clothes are like armor" providing "protection from the masses," Jillian thinks, but by the thrilling wind-up, Solow, an ad agency veteran, has ripped the tags off this assumption, forcing Jillian to face what compels her to steal.