Born With The Century

Description for BORN WITH THE CENTURY by William Kinsolving:

It was the beginning of a new century. America was wide open to a man with brains, luck, and the unholy desire to build a financial empire---at any cost.

In a powerful novel spanning seven decades, William Kinsolving traces the life of Magnus Macpherson from a penniless Scottish childhood to the realization of the American dream. Magnus Macpherson is to whiskey what Andrew Carnegie was to steel. Equally at home on Run Row or in fashionable Easthampton, in Hollywood or the back alleys of Tangiers, he carves his destiny on both sides of the law. In the deadly competition during Prohibition, his business associates, and rivals, include such names as Al Capone, Legs Diamond, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and Bugs Moran. Only his instincts and careful ambition keep him alive, and make him even richer.

Parallel to the rapid rise of his fortune is the private tragedy. With keen insight and rich imagination, BORN WITH THE CENTURY recounts the inevitable price paid for great ambition. As Magnus creates his empire, the family who will inherit it destroys itself. He becomes an enemy to his wife, a stranger to his children, and, finally, in the most bizarre twist of all, the convicted killer of his own son.