First published 2015
Regan and William Hamilton-Sweeney inherit a vast New York fortune but live as strangers to each other. Keith and Mercer love them, each in his own complicated way. In the punk clubs downtown, suburban teenagers Charlie and Samantha discover a world that pulls them away from everything they knew. A magazine reporter obsesses over stories while his idealistic neighbor tries to make sense of the city around them. On New Year's Eve 1976, someone fires a gun in Central Park. A detective works to connect the shooting to this web of characters scattered across the five boroughs. The investigation cuts through family secrets and friendships, reaching into the highest circles of power and the loneliest apartments. When the lights go out during the blackout of July 1977, the darkness forces each person to confront what they truly need from the others. The mystery becomes a mirror for questions about love, betrayal, and forgiveness. Art collides with truth, rock music provides a soundtrack, and the city itself becomes a character in the story of what makes life worth living.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, mystery, crime, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: ensemble-cast, interconnected-stories, mystery, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Central Park, New York, The Five Boroughs
Period: 1976, 1977
911 pages · Hardcover · Knopf