This Side of Brightness
From the New York Times-bestselling, National Book Award-winning, Booker Prize-longlisted author of Apeirogon and Let the Great World Spin
‘Vivid, potent, beautiful’ Maggie O’Farrell
At the turn of the twentieth century, Nathan Walker comes to New York City to take the most dangerous job in the country: digging the tunnel far beneath the Hudson that will carry trains from Brooklyn to Manhattan. In the dark bowels of the riverbed, the workers – Black, white, Irish and Italian – dig together. But above ground, the men keep their distance – until a dramatic accident on a bitter winter’s day welds a bond between Walker and his fellow workers that will both bless and curse three generations.
Almost ninety years later, Treefrog stumbles on the same tunnels and sets about creating a home amongst the drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes and petty criminals that comprise the forgotten homeless community.
‘Riveting and devastating’ Observer
‘McCann writes with unusual truthfulness about poverty, degradation and love’ Daily Telegraph
‘Brilliant … A dramatic memorial to the working-men who built the greatest of modern cities’ Financial Times