Paradise Alley - Rilegato

Baker, Kevin

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0060195827 ISBN 13: 9780060195823

Casa editrice: HarperCollins, 2002

Riassunto

At the height of the Civil War, what begins with strong words and a few broken bottles will, over the course of five days, escalate into the worst urban conflagration in American history. Hundreds of thousands of poor Irish immigrants smolder with resentment against a war and a president that have cost them so many of their young men. When word spreads throughout New York's immigrant wards that a military draft is about to be implemented -- a draft from which any rich man's son with $300 can buy an exemption -- trouble begins to spill into the streets.

Down in the waterfront slum of Paradise Alley, three women -- Deirdre Dolan O'Kane, Ruth Dove, and Maddy Boyle -- struggle with their private fears as they wait for the storm to descend on them. Deirdre, whose lace-curtain sensibilities have always kept her at arm's length from her neighbors, is devastated by the discovery that her husband, Tom, has been wounded at Gettysburg. In her desperation, Deirdre must turn for aid and comfort to Ruth, a woman she has always judged as morally depraved.

Ruth, too, has been cut off from her husband, Billy Dove, an ex-slave. At dawn he set out for the Colored Orphans' Asylum uptown, to collect his last wages. But he has not returned by day's end, or by the next morning. In the meantime, Ruth has learned that dozens of black men and women have been lynched or beaten by rioters.

She begins to fear the worst, not just for Billy, but for herself and their children, too -- because she now knows that he is coming. He is Dangerous Johnny Dolan, Deirdre's estranged brother, who after fourteen years' exile has returned to New York. Years before, it was Johnny who saved Ruth from the famine in Ireland, who arranged for her steerage passage from Dublin to New York -- and who beat her mercilessly until she arranged to have him sent away for murder.

Even as the riot builds toward its violent climax, Dolan searches relentlessly for Ruth and Deirdre, carried along by the unruly mob. In the end, these remarkable women have nothing but one another to rely on as they seek to protect their homes and families from the brutality of a city -- and a nation -- gone mad. Paradise Alley a story of race and hatred, of love and war, of risk and dauntless courage.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

“Rich in color and drama.... Extraordinary.... A triumph.” (New York Times)

Phenomenal.” (San Diego Union-Tribune)

“An engrossing epic” (Entertainment Weekly)

“A page-turning epic.” (New York Post)

“Deftly plotted, fabulously detailed, and never less than absorbing.” (Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review)

“Extraordinary....Baker achieves a hallucinatory realism packed with sensory detail, demonstrating why historical fiction is able to trump conventional historiography.” (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

“Extraordinary....Baker achieves a hallucinatory realism packed with sensory detail.” (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

“Paradise Alley probes the primal mysteries of ...love and war with skill, drama and deep humanity.” (Edmonton Journal)

“Skillfully illuminates a little-known episode in this country’s history.” (Library Journal)

“[A] richly detailed, impeccably researched drama.” (Booklist)

L'autore:

Kevin Baker is the bestselling author of the novels Dreamland, Paradise Alley, and Sometimes You See It Coming. He is a columnist for American Heritage magazine and a regular contributor to the New York Times, Harper's, and other periodicals. He lives in New York City with his wife, the writer Ellen Abrams, and their cat, Stella.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: HarperCollins
• Data di pubblicazione: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0060195827
• ISBN 13: 9780060195823
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 688