Garth Risk Hallberg Knihy

Sixty-three entries and photographs comprise a unique collaborative portrait of two fictional families.

The all-too-human individuals who live within this extraordinary first novel are: Regan and William Hamilton-Sweeney, estranged heirs to one of the city's biggest fortunes; Keith and Mercer, the men who, for better or worse, love them; Charlie and Sam, two Long Island teenagers seduced by downtown's nascent punk scene; an obsessive magazine reporter; his spunky, West Coast-transplant neighbor; and the detective trying to figure out what they all have to do with a shooting in Central Park. From post-Vietnam youth culture to the fiscal crisis, from a lushly appointed townhouse on Sutton Place to a derelict squat on East 3rd Street, this city on fire is at once recognizable and completely unexpected. And when the infamous blackout of July 13th, 1977 plunges it into darkness, each of these entangled lives will be changed, irrevocably.

A luminous new novel plunges deep into the lives of a teenage girl and her father as they navigate love, grief, addiction, resurrection, and the restless pull of others. When 13-year-old Jolie Aspern drops her phone onto the subway tracks in 2011, her estranged dad, Ethan, seems far from her thoughts. A convicted felon and recovering addict, Ethan has always struggled with self-absorption. However, a call from his ex leads him to believe their daughter is in deeper trouble than anyone realizes. Determined to save her, he returns to New York, bringing with him the weight of his past—its triumphs and mistakes. Thus begins the intimate epic of Jolie and Ethan, exploring their connection as they navigate opposition from family, friends, and a probation officer eager to help. Their journey will push Jolie into the depths of a mysterious relationship and thrust Ethan into the complexities of his first love, Jolie's mother. As they struggle to reconnect, their path takes them from a surf break in mid-'90s Delaware to group therapy during the Great Recession, from an encampment at Occupy Wall Street to a HoJo on Maryland's Eastern Shore, and from the heights of the Brooklyn Bridge to horizons rarely depicted in fiction.