New York

The Novel

By: Edward Rutherfurd

Narrated by: Mark Bramhall

Length: 37 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

The best-selling 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, best-selling 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 19th and early 20th 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.

Terrific book, but for me: not as good as Sarum.

After having read Sarum, I was excited to jump into New York and I enjoyed it very much… just not as much as Sarum; I think it’s because the novelty for the style wore off. After being immediately impressed by a captivating start, I had to eventually downgrade it from “5-star-favourite” to “4-star-terrific”. Still high praise.

If you’ve read any books in the series you know it’s essentially a collection of interconnected short stories about a family spanning hundreds of years (or thousands in Sarum), but I didn’t find them all as interesting or compelling this time. I LOVED the start (New Amsterdam in 1664) and I was completely engrossed by the story of Dirk Van Dyck and his secret daughter Pale Feather, then as the story continued though the eyes of their slave Quash, I was equality riveted. But after that it went from ‘fantastic’ to ‘very good’ to ‘ good’ to ‘maybe the next part will be great’… although I did perk up again with the story of Sarah and Charlie that started in the 1950s.

I wished the Wampum Belt would have made an appearance more often because I liked the way it reminded you of the connectivity to past generations. I would sometimes forget how the current protagonist was related to the previous one, so a little extra exposition every now and then would have been very helpful for me. I also would have enjoyed some blurbs following the construction of the Statue of Liberty – nothing long and detailed, more like an occasion mention in the background.

In addition, I felt that the end of the book was a little rushed; as if he has expended all his good ideas up front and just wanted to hurry up and finish he book so he could start writing a new one.

Still, overall, I am a fan. Can’t say I will read all his books but I will definitely read Paris and I can’t wait for its release in April… I already pre ordered it!

kept my interest the whole time

this was an excellent book in which I really learned a lot about New York history the story was very good

New York by Rutherford

Wonderfully written!
Rutherfurd knows how to construct a plot and keeps you interested in the next event.

I was attached to the characters and events. I had a wonderful reading experience and wanted to know more to the very end.

Excellent

A beautiful sweeping novel. Interesting characters and events. I enjoyed greatly. Sad about wampum belt.

Only one issue with this book....

Only one issue with this book is the end. I just think 9/11 should have been given way more time. The other major historic events got plenty of time and detail but 9/11 took only a few pages. Other than that it was amazing. I even kept a family tree to keep track of the connections. Also learned a lot!