The winner of the first Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award was announced today: Bill Loehfelm, author of Fresh Kills, a noir mystery about lower-middle-class life in Staten Island, home to the famous garbage dump Fresh Kills. Representatives from Penguin and Amazon made the announcement at a breakfast at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York City this morning.
Loehfelm, who works as a bartender in New Orleans during the day and wrote Fresh Kills at night, won a $25,000 publishing contract with Penguin, which will publish the novel in late summer.
Excerpt of book
You can download a free excerpt of the book here.