Need : A Novel

New York City is in the grip of a bad-moon heat wave, with the street-corner preachers running amok. Into the fray, four damaged lives come together at a pet store on the Upper West Side, each one consumed by a private hunger and driven toward an inevitable fate. 304 pp. 15,000 print. From the Hardcover edition Four New York misfits search for a reason for living. One is a pimp, the second a woman who works as a target in knife throwing contests, the third a belly dancer, and the fourth is a black Irishman. Their hangout is Ferdousine's Zoo, a Manhattan pet shop, until the action switches to the subway system for a confrontation with the Black Swans, a tunnel cult