Strivers Row
Kevin Baker
The third volume of the City of Fire trilogy imagines the challenges of a young Malcolm Little (eventually to be known as Malcolm X) and a half-white reverend in 1940s Harlem.
The Wonder Spot
Melissa Bank
Twenty years in the life of sarcastic, questioning Sophie Applebaum, from Hebrew school to work, romance and beyond.
Fledgling
Octavia E. Butler
A fantastical story of a young girl who is actually a middle-aged vampire serves as an exploration of "otherness" and what it means to be human.
Hardboiled Brooklyn
Reed Farrel Coleman, ed.
Mystery and noir permeate the borough in this collection of crime stories.
The Dew Breaker
Edwidge Danticat
Separate lives are connected by one Haitian man - a torturer in Haiti during the 1960s who immigrates to Brooklyn and later reveals his dark past to his daughter.
Brooklyn Dreams
J.M. DeMatteis
A middle-aged man recalls the tribulations of his senior year of high school in a Brooklyn neighborhood, told in a dreamlike graphic novel.
The March
E.L. Doctorow
A gripping retelling of the 1864 march of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman and his troops through Georgia and the Carolinas.
Getting Hers: A Tale of Revenge
Donna Hill
Three wronged women form an unlikely alliance and set out on a fast-paced quest to get what's theirs.
The Electric Michelangelo
Sarah Hall
The life and loves of a gifted English tattoo artist in the vibrant Coney Island of the midtwentieth century.
The Next Best Thing
Sandra Kitt
A passionate affair begins unexpectedly on a summer vacation in Italy, connecting April Stockwood, a single mother, with a former high school classmate.
Silent Lies
M.L. Malcolm
A poor European boy uses his gift of languages to move through societies, from Hungary to Shanghai, during the period between the two World Wars.
No Country for Old Men
Cormac McCarthy
A lyrical portrait of corruption and conflict on the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
Ghost Town: Tales of Manhattan Then and Now
Patrick McGrath
Three unusual stories about New York City set during the American Revolution, the Civil War and the post-9/11 era.
The Outside World
Tova Mirvis
A poignant and comedic look at faith and marriage in two Orthodox Jewish families.
Haarlem
Heather Neff
Abel Paulus Crofton, the biracial son of an abusive, alcoholic saxophonist and a Dutch mother he never knew, confronts his past in a journey from Harlem, New York, to Haarlem, Netherlands.
The Last of Her Kind
Sigrid Nunez
Two women become friends in 1968 and over time deal with issues of politics, class and revolutionary activity in dramatically different ways.
Gilead
Marilynne Robinson
An aged reverend gives his son an account of his life and family history, meditating on faith, forgiveness and redemption.
The Plot Against America
Philip Roth
An alternate history that imagines the isolationist and anti-Semitic Charles Lindbergh as president in 1940, as told by a Jewish family in Newark.
Absurdistan
Gary Shteyngart
A comic novel in the form of an appeal to U.S. immigration officials, written by a Russian heir trying to live a twisted American dream.
18 Seconds
George Shuman
A blind investigator with the gift of clairvoyant sight-she can see a murder victim's final 18 seconds of memory-helps hunt a brutal serial killer in New Jersey.
On Beauty
Zadie Smith
Academia, race, class, culture and the inner lives of families clash and come together in this imaginative story inspired by E.M. Forster's Howards End.
The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher
Debby Applegate
A look at the life and times of the celebrated nineteenth century Brooklyn Heights preacher and abolitionist.
The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless
John D. Barrow
An examination of the infinite, drawing on history and science, as well as literature, philosophy and religion.
Behind the Lines: Powerful and Revealing American and Foreign War Letters - and One Man's Search to Find Them
Andrew Carroll, ed.
A compilation of letters written by people from both sides of every major conflict in world history.
Sweet and Low: A Family Story
Rich Cohen
The bittersweet tale of the rise and fall of a sweetener empire-and a family-started by one Jewish immigrant in Brooklyn.
War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
Christopher Hedges
A veteran war correspondent who reported on fighting in Central America, the Balkans and the Middle East muses on the ways that war seduces societies.
The House on Childress Street: A Memoir
Kenji Jasper
The Great Migration of African-Americans from the South and urban black life in the North, as seen through one family's history.
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics and the Battle for the Soul of a City
Jonathan Mahler
Entwined stories highlight one pivotal year in New York City history: the mayoral race, Reggie Jackson and the World Series, the blackout and the Son of Sam murders.
