Name: Christodora
ISBN: 9780802125286

Tim Murphy

An artistic couple, their adopted son, and a once-celebrated AIDS activist connect in unexpected ways in their bohemian Manhattan East Village apartment over the course of decades marked by the Tompkins Square Riots, addiction, the hipster generation, and the glass-ceiling wealth of the 2020s.

A Novel

Christodora

Loved it. Murphy weaves multiple timelines, and I felt totally immersed in New York City. I also learnt a lot about the AIDS crisis in NYC in the 80s.

g.m.

Laura

I feel oddly catfished by this book. Maybe because it’s a novel about AIDS activism in New York City when a good chunk of the book takes place in modern day LA and AIDS only comes in when it’s plot relevant. The novel does have some great parts and the parts about female AIDS activism is fantastic but the rest of the novel is not. I think the ultimate problem I had with Christodora is that for a family saga, the family and the characters aren’t all that compelling. I was uninterested in any of them, especially Mateo and Milly. The book reminded me of the memoir Memories That Smell Like Gasoline, but I was not really taken with this novel the way I was with that, often hard to read, memoir. Oh well, not all of them can be winners, I guess.

'An engrossing and inspiring story of loss, love and hope, set against a backdrop of art, activism and addiction.' Observer The Christodora is home to Milly and Jared, a privileged young couple with artistic ambitions. Their neighbour, Hector, a Puerto Rican gay man who was once a celebrated AIDS activist but is now a lonely addict, becomes connected to Milly's and Jared's lives in ways none of them can anticipate. Meanwhile, the couple's adopted son, Mateo, grows to appreciate the opportunities for both self-realization and oblivion that New York offers. As the junkies and protestors of the 1980s give way to the hipsters of the 2000s and they, in turn, to the wealthy residents of the crowded, glass-towered city of the 2020s, enormous changes rock the personal lives of Milly and Jared and the constellation of people around them. Moving kaleidoscopically from the Tompkins Square Riots and attempts by activists to galvanize a response to the AIDS epidemic, to the New York City of the future, Christodora recounts the heartbreak wrought by AIDS, illustrates the allure and destructive power of hard drugs, and brings to life the ever-changing city itself.

Nikita Barsukov

A four-stars book that hit a nerve. Addiction, growing up, marriage, family, trauma through generations are the main themes. Superb multi-cast narration, and a cherry on top - no pandemic, no Trump and everyone uses tablets in 2016 version of 2021.

Christodora A Novel

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