The act of wishing - for protection, for fortune, for something new and grand - is an act of possibility. Wishes and their talismans have long been a part of cultures around the world, and no talisman hilds quite so much universal appeal as the penny. The Penny charts the trajectory of a single penny through a hopeful half-century - from Rome's Trevi Fountain to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Temple of Dendur, from Midwestern shopping malls to California diners. Along the way, images explore the custom of wishing and the penny's iconic status in popular culture. Assouline in conjunction with Cole Haan, celebrates the sense of wonder that accompanies a shiny new penny and offers this book to anyone, young or old, who has ever closed her hand around a penny and, in the moment before letting go, has made a wish. AUTHOR: Garth Risk Hallberg is the author of A Field Guide to the North American Family. His stories and essays have appeared in Slate, Glimmer Train, and The Quarterly Conversation, among others, and in the anthologies Best New American Voices 2008 abd BEst of the Web 2008. 60 illustrations
