Fiction Pick of the Week: New York

New York by Edward Rutherfurd 2009

Yes, Rutherfurd’s books are huge and he has rightly been compared to famed storyweaver James Michener. But this past summer I treated myself to Rutherfurd’s newest book, New York , and was not disappointed. As with his other sweeping historical epics, Rutherfurd is the consummate storyteller. In this tribute to the Big Apple, he stretches the story back to New York’s origins as an Indian fishing village in the 1600s and leaves the story off in the aftermath of 9/11. The reader will follow the lives of several fictional families through 4 centuries with a number of real historic characters interwoven into the story. And what a story it is – the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, two world wars, multiple waves of immigration and the renaissance of the cleaned up New York of the 80s. In addition to so many other fascinating pieces of New York history, I learned about the emergence of the Tammany Hall political machine, the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist fire and the building of the Empire State Building. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, family sagas and of course to fans of the great city of New York itself.