First published 2009
From Dutch settlers claiming Manhattan Island to modern New Yorkers fleeing the World Trade Center attacks, generations of families build their lives amid the city's constant transformation. Rich merchants and poor immigrants, enslaved people and native born Americans, all struggle to find their place as New York grows from colonial outpost to global metropolis. The Revolutionary War tears through their neighborhoods. Financial booms and busts reshape their fortunes. Waves of newcomers from Ireland, Italy, and beyond crowd into tenements while others rise to Fifth Avenue mansions. Two world wars test their loyalties. The city nearly collapses in the 1970s before roaring back to life. Through it all, these interconnected families endure love and loss, triumph and tragedy. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Babe Ruth walk among them as history unfolds. Their stories reveal how ordinary people chase the American dream of freedom and prosperity across four centuries of a city that never stops changing.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-saga, historical-fiction
Setting: Manhattan Island, New York, Fifth Avenue
Period: Colonial Era, Revolutionary War, World War I, World War II, 1970s
862 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday