First published 2009
Homer Collyer sits in the darkness of his family's Fifth Avenue mansion, his blindness sharpening his awareness of every creak and whisper in the cluttered rooms around him. His brother Langley returns from another scavenging expedition through New York's streets, dragging home newspapers, broken appliances, and whatever else catches his war-damaged mind. Langley dreams of creating a timeless newspaper that will capture all human experience in one perfect edition. The brothers retreat deeper into their private world, but the outside century refuses to leave them alone. Immigrants seek shelter, jazz musicians bring their sounds, gangsters conduct business, and government agents come calling. Wars rage beyond their walls while inside, the towers of hoarded newspapers and salvaged objects grow higher. Homer and Langley want only to survive on their own terms, but their isolation becomes its own kind of trap as the city changes around them and their mansion fills with the debris of decades.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Fifth Avenue, New York
Period: 20th Century, 21st Century
208 pages · Hardcover · Random House