The King of Kreskin Avenue

The King of Kreskin Avenue is the powerful tale of the connection between Mario Colucci, a highly decorated, emotionally scarred Korean War hero who’s the neighborhood oddity, and a sixteen-year-old neighborhood kid, Robbie Shumstein, trying to come to grips with the death of his brother in Vietnam.Set in Buffalo, NY over a 30-year time frame, the story’s dramatic climax occurs in the late 1960’s against the background of a Jewish/Italian lower middle-class neighborhood with its own life and personality. With the gentle guidance and wisdom of Mario’s wife Mattie, a former combat nurse, and the assistance of a Don McIntyre, a conscientious objector, the King and Robbie put their demons to rest by setting a pipeline in motion that ultimately saves the lives of hundreds of young men.Fifty years after the end of the Vietnam War, readers will be asked to consider a compelling question: are Robbie and the King criminals and traitors, or heroes and saviors? This beautifully written debut novel exposes the anger, polarization and chaos of the time, and the consequences when a country’s moral compass fails and needs to be re-balanced by men, a woman and a boy of conscience.