No Lease on Life depicts twenty-four hours in the life of a woman and a city on the edge. In this brilliant, darkly comic novel, Elizabeth struggles to keep her wits, whether she is dealing with the Crusties, self-styled anarchists, or complaining to the city housing agency about her landlord. But her life is also enriched by the great variety of city characters: Gisela, an aging beauty tormented, she thinks, by the Swiss police; Hector, the pack rat of a building super; and her boyfriend, Roy, whose laconic and ironic voice is a constant foil to her frantic one.

By the end of the second night, the morons are back wreaking havoc, but Elizabeth is ready for them, striking a final, defiant -- and hilarious -- blow.

Passionately and scrupulously written, No Lease on Life stunningly captures the pathos and humor of life at the end of the twentieth century.