The World of Tomorrow

Three brothers caught up in a whirlwind week of love, blackmail, and betrayal that culminates in an assassination plot, set in 1930s New York. Francis Dempsey and his deaf-mute and shell-shocked brother, Michael, are on an ocean liner from Ireland headed for their brother Martin's home in New York City, having absconded with a small fortune stolen from the IRA. But when Tom Cronin, a retired henchman forced into one last job, tracks the brothers down, Francis must capitulate to blackmail, or have his family suffer fatal consequences. New York, meanwhile, is suffused with the electric fervor of the World's Fair, which will see the country play host to a reigning British monarch for the first time in history. But when the befuddled Michael disappears, wandering the streets of Manhattan, and Francis becomes embroiled in an assassination plot, the brothers' long-awaited reunion with Martin may be short-lived. From the boozy nightclubs of Harlem to the backroom warrens of mobsters on the make, Brendan Mathews brings prewar New York to vivid, pulsing life, while the sweeping and intricate storytelling of this remarkable debut reveals an America that blithely hoped it could avoid another catastrophic war by focusing instead on the promise of the Fair: a peaceful, prosperous "World of Tomorrow."