“The less people know about you, the longer you live” is the motto of Arkady Prikol — the antihero of this quirky, existential thriller — an aging Russian-Jewish émigré living an uneventful life on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Uneventful until the day he gets a phone call from a man who calls himself Timur. The man who has been dead for 20 years.

Once upon a time Arkady and Timur were best friends and co-workers at a top-secret place called Lab 52,  where they designed and tested psychotropic drugs. But soon Arkady and Timur’s camaraderie ran into something greater than all the LSD in their lab. Her name was Lisa. Such triangles don’t end well. Arkady keeps replaying in his mind bittersweet scenes of love, sex, and tenderness, and gradually comes to realize that their torrid romance was not what it seemed. As Lisa broke out of the romantic mold the two friends have tried hard to keep her in, she showed her true colors, and they learned what happens when poetry mixes with political dissent in a Russian girl’s heart.

With his old life trying to catch up with him, Arkady goes on a lam, running from one hideout to another — from the Dominican barrio to a Moldavian bordello in Riverdale and finally to a top-security Mafia “sanctuary” in Brooklyn. As he runs, he keeps searching for the clues to his caller’s true identity, forced to dig into his long-dead past where he suddenly discovers a slim possibility of a future.

About the author

Readers’ reviews:

“Gurevich must be admired for some noteworthy comments on his subject material: from drugs to identity, communism to capitalism and from lust to love, however astonishing such a love appears to be. . . . Vodka For Breakfast is a thought-provoking and — on the whole — satisfying read. Do not be fooled at first glance by a seemingly unsatisfying climax, as conjuring sense from disorientation is perhaps David Gurevich’s greatest achievement.” — Neil Ayres, Fragment Magazine

“David Gurevich’s Vodka for Breakfast grabs the reader by the lapel and heaves them through this magnetic novel; Gurevich interweaves fast-paced action, wistful romance, and sharp wit in a concoction that is so compelling, it seems to be laced with vodka! Gurevich’s characters are as compelling as his wry humor, and the novel’s heavier moments are equally moving and well-written. . . . a fun, hard-to-put-down read, but also a thought-provoking novel . . .” — Trevor Trietsch, Goodreads

“If Vodka for Breakfast were set to a soundtrack, the music would flow surprisingly easy between sharp cello strings found in a car chasing scene from the likes of a Bourne Identity film, to the soft piano keys set as the background music to a favorite love story. In his novel, David Gurevich is able to stitch together the action and drama genres to weave a story of danger and love while exploring the possibility that even after these things cease to exist, the past still does.” — Kimberly, Goodreads

trade paperback 5.25" X 8.25" 266 pp. list price $19 ISBN-13: 978-0-9728321-2-0 ISBN-10: 0-9728321-2-2