INTERMARRY a new novel by Rhea Harmsen

A strange menagerie in an unlikely setting. Jack Wolinski, a young white architect with a crazy scheme and some maxed-out credit cards. Fiona Reed, a young woman with the brass of a CEO and the innocence of a nun. Otis Reed, a Denzel-like construction foreman with a penchant for poetry. And Towana Jackson, a desperate single mother with too many pounds and too many kids.

Their lives intersect at the juncture of Drexel Boulevard and 47th Street. It’s a wild bid to turn a corner of the ghetto into paradise. Starting with boarded up, urine-smelling, condemned properties. Aiming for yuppie south side “revitalization,” and urban gardens. A mad venture that sucks them into a vortex of hard work, laughter, and near-bankruptcy. Hoping to find dignity, love and healing. But what the heart longs for and the eyes crave, you must not touch.

It’s…