First published 2024
This collection brings together two of Jonathan Lethem's acclaimed Brooklyn novels. In Motherless Brooklyn, Lionel Essrog navigates the streets of 1990s Brooklyn as a detective with Tourette's syndrome, investigating his mentor's murder while battling his own compulsive tics and outbursts. His condition makes him an unlikely investigator, but his obsessive attention to detail drives him deeper into a conspiracy that reaches from small-time hoods to powerful developers reshaping the borough. The Fortress of Solitude follows Dylan Ebdus growing up white in 1970s Gowanus, where he forms an unlikely friendship with Mingus Rude, his African American neighbor. Their bond develops against the backdrop of a changing neighborhood, comic book fantasies, and the harsh realities of urban life. Both protagonists struggle with isolation and belonging in a city that seems determined to leave them behind.
Genres: american-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, crime, detective, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unlikely-hero
Setting: Brooklyn, Gowanus
Period: 1970s, 1990s
848 pages · Hardcover · Everyman's Library
Content warnings: mental-illness