Golda’s Hutch

“A scintillating take on marital and workplace dramas with compelling characters and devilish surprises…Goldstein’s precise, elegant prose cleverly takes its time revealing his characters’ secret desires, building suspense for fun to come…when readers are alone with each character’s thoughts, the author serves up something delicious.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Secrets are a dangerous currency. They make us feel powerful—until they expose our vulnerability. The risk isn’t just in having a secret; it’s in what someone might do with it. In Robert Steven Goldstein’s Golda’s Hutch, corporate corruption collides with a shadowy world of twisted desires, where knowledge is power and trust is a weapon. Everyone is hiding something, and what they’re willing to do to protect or exploit those secrets could be lethal. In this dark, psychological novel, one truth emerges: beware what you unearth, for once the layers are stripped away, there is no turning back.”
—Carla Damron, award-winning author of Justice Be Done, The Orchid Tattoo, and The Stone Necklace.

“What a fabulous read! Golda’s Hutch features themes that will inspire and titillate—suspenseful plotlines that explode with unexpected twists and turns—and a host of captivating multi-faceted characters you’ll love or hate, but always find beguiling. With intelligence and sensitivity, the novel probes such fascinating recesses of behavior as BDSM, yoga, vegetarianism, and animal spirituality—piquing and arousing the reader’s intelligence and imagination at every juncture.”
—Glenn German, screenwriter and producer of films including At Middleton and Racing for Time

“It would be sufficient to proclaim Golda’s Hutch a beautifully written novel with fascinating characters engaged in compelling quests. But there is so much more. Golda’s Hutch is the great American BDSM novel. Granted, there have been titillating bestsellers exploring that theme. But, in a manner I’ve not seen before, Golda’s Hutch gets inside the minds of otherwise ordinary people whose innate sexual orientation demands dominant and submissive play—it reveals the furtive machinations these people are forced to engage in to hide their propensities—and it questions why, despite societal acceptance of many other orientations, this one remains taboo.”
—Ken Jakobs, librettist, director, and producer of opera in the San Francisco Bay Area

“If you’ve ever been in a corporate team-building meeting, the opening scene of Golda’s Hutch will make you squirm in your seat and come up with an escape plan. Goldstein nails the opening and it only gets better. The solid foundation of this novel is the character development of his seven main characters, all slightly off-center but very believable, but the engine that moves the story along is Goldstein’s true ear for dialogue. When his characters speak, I believe them. The plot is serious business among serious people, but punctuated with eccentric but attractive protagonists. You’ll want to know more about the forensic cosmetologist, and of course the eponymous Golda, a rabbit who practices yoga. Golda’s Hutch cleverly pits corporate and marital stories in parallel and the narratives clip right along in tandem. I literally didn’t put it down. I read it through in one sitting because I needed to know how it ended. Golda’s Hutch is literate, compelling and fun.”
—James D. Nealon, author of Confederacy of Fenians

“All the ways we hide our secrets from each other—and from ourselves—are on display in Robert Steven Goldstein’s latest and extremely entertaining novel, Golda’s Hutch. Moving between America’s cutthroat corporate boardrooms to kink-play in San Francisco’s BDSM world to mysticism as embodied by a titular, yoga-practicing rabbit, this delicate balancing act reveals, layer by layer, a thrilling and thought-provoking exploration of human nature and the boundaries of self-discovery. Goldstein’s prose elegantly entwines psychological tension, dark humor, and an unapologetically raw examination of human desires to create an unforgettable reading experience. For fans of psychological drama and literary fiction, Golda’s Hutch is an intelligent, compelling, and at times humorous narrative that is both thought-provoking and insightful. Highly recommended.”
—Madeleine Ivy, author of The Witchhammer

“The core power of Golda’s Hutch resides in the disquieting foibles of its characters, played off against the intrigue of betrayal and our basest instincts. Golda’s Hutch challenges readers to take a deep look inside to see where they come out at the end of an unnerving ride into the dark, titillating, and engrossing aspects of human nature.”
—Michael J. Coffino, author of the multi-award-winning novel Truth Is in the House

“A terrific read! Golda’s Hutch showcases the twisted machinations to which people will resort to improve their prospects, and the tenuous terrain they will negotiate to hide personal secrets. Robert Steven Goldstein introduces us to compelling, well-crafted characters from the San Francisco Bay Area—including some who participate in its clandestine BDSM community—all doggedly navigating personal relationships, while working to further their professional opportunities. Golda’s Hutch is a gritty, riveting, and thought-provoking novel—highly recommended.”
—Michael Miller, author of High Bridge, Matilda, and Grover Battle Learned Ignorance

“Goldstein strikes at the heart again with a novel that slinks forward seductively, navigating the junction of several workaday lives, teasing out an internecine drama. With humor and aplomb Goldstein maps intrigue among the technical staff of an enterprise that cascades toward significant staff reduction. One leader, buoyed by his belief that strength is not, must not, be defined by subterfuge and heartlessness, ventures to perform his high-wire leadership act without alienating management peers and subordinates alike. As the tension builds, the plotters seek to expose secrets that will supplant and destroy the leader who might well teach a better way through example. Goldstein weaves corporate and personal lives into a fabric that cloaks the reader in suspense to the end.”
—Michael Rose, author of the novels The Sorting Room and Beyond a Thousand Words

“Golda’s Hutch is a remarkable and unique narrative, which beautifully explores the journey of self-discovery, amidst characters entangled in complex relationships. Its unexpected use of a rabbit as a symbol of mysticism is transforming. Golda’s Hutch masterfully blends meditation, food, sex, and humor to reflect on the essence of relationships and, perhaps, the meaning of existence.”
—Shmuel Yaccoby, author of Kumaz and Face Your Word

“Set in San Francisco, Golda’s Hutch explores the world of corporate machinations through the eyes of Craig Schumacher—an executive who puts the feelings of his employees over cold calculation and the hard-ass bottom line. Craig is also negotiating the risky shoals of his marriage to Shoshana, a professional dominatrix—while he desperately seeks a way to rechannel his penchant for sexual submission into a more sustainable lifestyle. Featuring a host of unique and well-developed characters, Golda’s Hutch gives the reader an eye-opening peek into a wide range of subjects, from the virtues of daily morning yoga practice and vegetarianism (replete with an impressive array of menu items) to the finer points of mortuary science and, of course, BDSM. A riveting page-turner that goes with white meat, red meat, or no meat at all.”
—Tom Szollosi, screenwriter for Star Trek: Voyager, Three O’Clock High, and The Incredible Hulk; author of the books The Space He Filled and The Last Master Outlaw; and professor of screenwriting at Loyola Marymount University.