A single, drunken misunderstanding is all it took for Javier Landes to be thrown out of his home at age seventeen. His keen survival instincts and powerful imagination guide him to a career as one of Manhanttan’s top-paid escorts. Shrewd and street-smart, Jav has no interest or faith in love, and familial loyalty is a thing of the past until, after 9/11, he is named guardian for an unknown nephew. Reunited with his late sister’s son, Jav is not only forced to confront the long-buried pain of his past, but he comes face-to-face with a fascinating couple he’s met before: Alex Penda and Valerie Lark. Winner of the Grand Prize in the 2017 Writer’s Digest Awards, An Exaltation of Larks will take you across fifteen years and two continents, exploring both the business of sex and the price of love.