Debt Reduction in Twenty Minutes             

Set over a week’s time span one year after the 2008 financial meltdown, Debt Reduction in Twenty Minutes is a mainstream/literary novel about an Israeli immigrant’s struggle to succeed in his cousin’s credit consolidation business while upholding his religious values.

So far Israeli-American number-cruncher extraordinaire, Yotam Fink, has managed to separate his work at Lighthouse Credit Advisors from his Modern Orthodox Jewish practices. But now his boss and cousin, the charismatic Benny Schenk, who protected Yotam as a young immigrant and later saved him from unemployment, is calling in a personal debt. Benny wants Yotam to break Shabbat in order to give a series of Saturday Seminars crucial to the company’s survival. Meanwhile, Yotam’s wife Clara thinks he should look elsewhere for work. Torn between what he owes his pot-smoking, quick-talking cousin and the religious traditions that give his life meaning, Yotam probes Lighthouse’s shaky finances, draws closer to one of the firm’s desperate clients, and continually annoys his cello-playing wife. As the two cousins engage in an escalating war of wills, Yotam knows he must act or lose everything he holds most dear – Clara first and foremost.