New York

The Novel

By: Edward Rutherfurd

Narrated by: Mark Bramhall

The bestselling master of historical fiction weaves a grand, sweeping drama of New York from the city's founding to the present day.Rutherfurd celebrates America's greatest city in a rich, engrossing saga that showcases his extraordinary ability to combine impeccable historical research and storytelling flair. As in his earlier, bestselling novels, he illuminates cultural, social, and political upheavals through the lives of a remarkably diverse set of families. As he recounts the intertwining fates of characters rich and poor, black and white, native born and immigrant, Rutherfurd brings to life the momentous events that shaped New York and America: the Revolutionary War, the emergence of the city as a great trading and financial center, the excesses of the Gilded Age, the explosion of immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the trials of World War II, the near-demise of New York in the 1970s and its roaring rebirth in the '90s, and the attacks on the World Trade Center. Sprinkled throughout are captivating cameo appearances by historical figures ranging from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln to Babe Ruth.New York is the book that millions of Rutherfurd's American fans have been waiting for. A brilliant mix of romance, war, family drama, and personal triumphs, it gloriously captures the search for freedom and prosperity at the heart of our nation's history.©2009 Edward Rutherford; (P)2009 Random House

Critic reviews

“Like James Michener and Leon Uris, Rutherfurd does a magnificent job of packaging a crackling good yarn within a digestible overview of complex historical circumstances and events.” —Booklist

"History has never been so fun to read....Rutherfurd's research is exhaustive....fun....This is history, but with a very readable story line."--USA Today

Well-crafted and well-performed

Stunning in its breadth and detail, this book conveys the history of one of the world's most important cities in an intensely personal manner. It will be impossible to visit New York now without sensing the influence of the Indians, the Dutch, the British through their occupation during the Revolution, and all the immigrant cultures that followed.

Rutherford weaves a story based substantially on commerce and banking in a human manner that brings to life all the issues and challenges that New York faced, as it grew into the metropolis of today, through the stories of individual families. Much to his credit, he maintains a solid character development of entire families through many generations, from the 1600's to 2009. Bramhall's narration is outstanding, conveying young girls, ancient grandmothers, and a multitude of ethnic accents with great skill and authenticity.

I marvel most at the construction of the story. It takes great skill to tackle such a large history and convey it with enough human interest to keep a reader spell-bound for 36 hours. I could have listened for many more. All in all, a great book and fine performance that I highly recommend listening to.

Clever Idea for Making History More Interesting

I always think that learning about events in history is more interesting when you view the events through the eyes of those who lived through it. I usually like to read non-fiction, including biographies and autobiographies of historical figures, for this very reason. Even though this book is based on fictional characters, I thought I would give it a try to learn more about the history of New York. The author did a decent job of creating a picture of the social/political climate for each time period for certain segments of society. Certain time periods got significantly more chapters than others, and certain major historical events were skipped altogether, for reasons that were not clear to me, but overall, it was a pretty clever idea for a book. I could see it being used in a high school history class to make history more readable for a younger audience. #PastMeetsPresent #Clever #NewYork #Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes

Fall in Love with New York

Edward Rutherfurd's New York follows the lives of New York families from the days of the Dutch through post-9/11 Manhattan to give the readers a unique perspective on the history and people of the greatest city on earth. The city itself comes alive as perhaps the most important character of all in the book, and what could be slow and boring is instead fast paced and exciting. ER makes the intelligent choice to not dwell too much on any one event or period, but instead drops in at key moments and fills in the gaps quickly if necessary. Mark Bramhall's narration was excellent as well. I was somewhat skeptical going in but this is the best (serious) book I have read in months. At 38 hours or so it is definitely worth a credit.

Very enjoyable

Fascinating presentation. Like being there. The author did a great job of helping you follow the generations of family members.

Draws you through time

It took a bit to get into the story, but as the characters developed, the story intertwined over the years. The connections were interesting, allowing history to come to life.