Edward Rutherfurd

A tale set against a backdrop of New York City's history from its founding through the September 11 attacks traces the experiences of characters who witness such periods as the Revolutionary War, the city's emergence as a financial giant, and the Gilded Age.

The Novel

New York

Patrick Book

A bit soapy for my usual tastes, but an absolutely daunting piece of historical fiction that is carried off extremely well.

Megan Gardner

** spoiler alert **
           Interesting novel that follows a familial line in New York from the time of New Amsterdam to 9/11 and the modern day. New York City really is the main character in this book, the human characters are just used to tell its story, hence none of them are thoroughly fleshed out. The book branches out from the central family in order to tell the story of those who weren't white and rich (slaves, Irish and Italian immigrants, Jewish Brooklynites, etc.). Overall, a well told story. It's long length is understandable given the immense amount of time it covers. My only real complaint is regarding the fate of the characters on 9/11. Somehow, EVERYONE needs to be at the Twin Towers for one reason or another, and only one person dies?? And one who had already lived a long and satisfying life? It may have seemed more accurate if another character at the scene was at least injured. It felt like too much happy ending-itis on Rutherfurd's part.

Les Reynolds

The characters weren't that interesting, and there were not as many interesting facts as I had hoped.

Brooke Lonegan

Lorraine

the novel

Georgie K

Daniel Toke Hansen

Jasmine Patel

A brilliant mix of battle, romance, family struggles, and personal triumphs, New York gloriously captures the search for freedom and prosperity at the heart of America's history. A blockbuster masterpiece that combines breath-taking scope with narrative immediacy, this grand historical epic traces the history of New York through the lenses of several families: The Van Dycks, a wealthy Dutch trading family; the Masters, scions of an English merchant clan torn apart during the Revolution; the Hudsons, slaves who fight for their freedom over several generations; the Murphys, who escape the Famine in Ireland and land in the chaotic slum of Five Points; the Rewards, robber barons of the Gilded Age; the Florinos, an immigrant Italian clan who work building the great skyscrapers in the 1920s; and the Rabinowitzs, who flee anti-semitism in Europe and build a new life in Brooklyn. Over time, the lives of these families become intertwined through the most momentous events in the fabric of America: The founding of the colonies; the Revolution; the growth of New York as a major port and trading centre; the Civil War; the Gilded Age; the explosion of immigration and the corruption of Tammany Hall; the rise of New York as a great world city in the early 20th-century; the trials of World War II, the tumult of the 1960s; the near-demise of the city in the 1970s; its roaring rebirth in the 1990s; culminating in the World Trade Center attacks at the beginning of the new century. New York is the book that Rutherfurd's fans have been waiting for. From the Hardcover edition.

A Novel

Camilla Woodhouse

Emily K McCullar

Erin Noel

Judy McClure

Trish 

_________________________ A sweeping, epic novel of the greatest city in the world. From the empty grandeur of the New World to the skyscrapers of the City that Never Sleeps, from the intimate detail of lives long forgotten to those lived today at breakneck speed, Edward Rutherfurd's acclaimed novel is a true epic. The novel begins with a tiny Indian fishing village and the Dutch traders who first carved out their hopes amidst the splendour of the wilderness. The British settlers and merchants followed, with their aristocratic governors and unpopular taxation which led to rebellion, war, the burning of the city and the birth of the American Nation. Yet a country that had already rent itself asunder once did so again over slavery. As the country fought its bloody Civil War, the city was torn apart by deadly riots. Hopes and dreams, greed and corruption - they have always been the companions of freedom and opportunity in the city's teeming streets. As the immigrant ships berthed next to Ellis Island in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, they poured more and more Germans, Irish, Italians and Jews into the churning ethnic mix of the city. Deals were struck, politicians corrupted, men bought or assassinated, heiresses wooed, fortunes were speculated on Wall Street and men became rich beyond the dreams of avarice. The heady seesaw of wealth and poverty was seen in the Roaring Twenties and the Great Crash, the city's future symbolised by its buildings which literally touched the sky: the Empire State, the Chrysler Building, the Twin Towers. Rutherfurd tells this irresistible story through a cast of fictional and true characters whose fates interweave in the rise and fall, fall and rise of the city's fortunes. It is the story of how in four centuries New York became the envy of the world. And in telling the story through the lens of New York, Rutherfurd brings the story of America itself to unforgettable life in this epic masterpiece.

New York The Novel

Reviews