Mr. Rosenbaum, a skillful writer whose first novel was entitled Zaddik, tells us about Sasha, a Russian hustler who is released from a gulag, travels to New York, resumes his trade in Brighton Beach, works in the shadow of powerful Russian mobsters, gets involved with someone linked to a cache of plundered art and has to use whatever wits he has to emerge alive. Deftly written. The ending is ingenious.