[greencat]

free at Amazon.com:
Einstein's Shutter by Vincent Yanez

“I circled the shutter. I was trying to visualize the most efficient way to pick it up and carry it away, appearing nonchalant all the while, as if shutter-carting were a normal, natural, everyday kind of thing. Then I heard a noise. To my left, twenty feet away, the neighbor had come out of his house and was standing on his porch. He was wearing a worn-down peach-colored robe and was holding, what I could only assume, was a lukewarm cup of instant coffee.

He was facing Einstein’s house, facing me, while I eyed my wooden bounty. I did a slow orbit around the shutter, like a vulture does over a piece of road kill, making sure no other vehicles would be barreling down the road so he can enjoy his newfound dinner. I was intent on getting this shutter. This was my find, my artifact, my road kill!

The neighbor watched me. I turned to him and nodded, he nodded back. I stood still. He remained where he was. Hanna watched from the sidewalk. The minutes passed by.
Evening slowly arrived. The neighbor sipped from his mug. The wind picked up and I remained too stubborn to leave, too fearful to bend down and grab the shutter, too stupid to think of anything else. Hanna cleared her throat and finally, reluctantly, I admitted defeat and joined her on the sidewalk.

It was a Sunday, in August, 2001. I never really thought about Einstein’s shutter after that day.

A month later the Twin Towers fell, eight months after that Ben died and slowly my life began to unravel.

I know it’s an idiot notion to think that something as unimportant as my stealing Einstein’s shutter, committing property theft, has some sort of profound effect on how the world works. What it did make me realize though, is that day, that afternoon of contemplating taking Einstein’s shutter, signified the last thing I could remember being both upsetting and unimportant. It had made me think that life was somehow unfair, but in a subtle and somehow frivolous way. The next few years showed me what true humility and pain really was.”

Einstein’s Shutter is a whirlwind journey into a decade of one man’s life, in New York City, during what turns out to be one of the most horrific times in U.S. History. It’s also a story about redemption, reincarnation and ultimately it is a story of the power of the human spirit in a man, and a city, finding the strength they need to rise again after the attack on 9/11.
Einstein’s Shutter is also a comedy, a romance novel and ultimately a memoir of one life, amongst millions, in the greatest city in the world.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002EENKJI?tag=discounter-20