Bucking the Tiger

Five ruined men in fog-shrouded San Francisco make a pact that will haunt you. They will pool their last resources to fund one of their own, a man chosen by lot, to live like a king for one year. When that year ends, he must kill himself so the survivors can collect on a life insurance policy. It's a dark arithmetic of desperation and supposed honor. Then the lot falls on Jack Caraker, and everything goes catastrophically wrong: he finds love, finds wealth, finds a reason to live. Now he faces the question that will define him: can a man honorably welch on a devil's bargain, or has he become everything he once despised? Achmed Abdullah crafts this early century odyssey with atmosphere so thick you can taste the saloons and the sea, and with a moral puzzle that has no clean answer.