In Security
Gary Waldman is a grief-stricken former tennis coach slowly reentering the world after the death of his wife. As he struggles to remain a good father to his six-year-old son, Waldman finds unexpected comfort and stability in the rule-bound confines of the TSA, working as a Transportation Security Officer in upstate New York. But his life is turned upside down again after he uses CPR to bring a passenger back from the dead.
Part airport thriller, part family drama, part love story, In Security explores how those who strive to protect us are often unable to protect themselves. Can someone who does security work ever feel truly safe? As the novel races toward its conclusion, Waldman discovers the limits of what he can control, both at the checkpoint and under his own roof.
Responsible Men
"Life gets complicated for a con man with a conscience in a thrilling first novel that's family drama with a strong suspense element.
Max Wolinsky is back in Philadelphia for his son Nathan's bar mitzvah. It's been a year since Max took off for Florida, after wife Sandy left him for the gardener. Max is staying with his father Caleb, and his uncle Abe, a stroke victim. Both brothers used to be textile salesmen, and Max, a college dropout, had joined them for a while before crossing the line into small scams; right now, he's about to sell some nonexistent real estate to a prosperous Philly couple…Schwarzschild keeps the story moving while deepening his family portrait. Family members protect each other with kindnesses large and small, forming a lifeline to the next generation….Max is at the center, tempted by easy money, but willing to start over. His soul hangs in the balance through turns of plot and bare-knuckled violence, internal and external dramas both packing a wallop.
From a complicated business deal to a teenager's first kiss, Schwarzschild works with the quiet authority of a master. This is one terrific debut."
— Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
The Family Diamond
"In The Family Diamond...Edward Schwarzschild squarely faces obdurate aspects of life—illness, aging and death—with curiosity, respect and humor. He is the sort of fiction writer whose prose is so lucid, psychology so convincing, characters and action so surprising and intriguing, you forget you're reading. But for all their beguilement, these are unsparing tales of yearning and regret....What Schwarzschild does most daringly is to reveal that tenderness, a trivialized emotion, is, in fact, a radical, life-altering force."
— Donna Seaman, The Chicago Tribune