The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

This Pulitzer prize winning novel by Donna Tartt is relatively new to the NYC novel scene (by comparison) having been published in 2014. The Goldfinch begins with a startling event at a NYC art museum that changes the life of the protagonist 13 year old. Throughout his life, he carries this trauma with him, with the small piece of what he lost held in memory in the form of a small painting from the day of the tragedy. This story bounces between uniquely different neighborhoods in NYC to other cities and back to NYC again. Each interaction in the city is somehow tied to the setting in the city, in outcome and company.

“[The Goldfinch] is at once a thriller involving the theft and disappearance of the Fabritius painting, a panoramic portrait of New York (and, for that matter, America) in the post-Sept. 11 era, and, most especially, an old- fashioned Bildungsroman, complete with a “Great Expectations”-like plot involving an orphan, his moral and sentimental education and his mysterious benefactor” - Michiko Kakutani

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Often read in schools across the country, this American classic tells the tale of a young girl and her family in Brooklyn in the early 20th century. The “Tree of Heaven” is the namesake for the story, and the reader follows this local family through the ups and downs of poverty in the borough.

“It is, tested by time, one of the most cherished of American novels, recording in its powerful fashion the first years of this century in a breeding place of American genius, Brooklyn's Williamsburg and Greenpoint.” - Robert Cornfield, NYT

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The classic story of 1920s glamorous New York City post war and the scandalous escapades of the ultra rich and exclusive. Set between Manhattan and the Hamptons, old New York summers are the star. Characters are embellished in the finest clothes, always sipping a cocktail and discussing luxury of the time as the norm.

Gatsby is of course the namesake with a secret of his own that he holds tight to while persuing the protagonist’s cousin, Daisy.

“If you are interested in getting lost in the world of old New York money, glam and scandal, this infamous novel from American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald is sure to satisfy”- Claire, born and raised in Soho, NYC

Another Country by James Baldwin

Set in 1950s Greenwich Village and Harlem, this award winning novel touches on LBGT extramarital affairs, the beatnik art scene in NYC, racial tensions and many more deeply emotional themes. The characters’ varying relationships highlight subjects previously unmentioned in popular writings at the time and have been reviewed ever since.

“Another Country is a tour de force driven by a concentrated fuel of adrenaline, frustrated angst and sexual anxiety amongst characters both colliding into each other and being propelled away, who feel adrift as artists, and alienated from each other but especially their own selves, in a world steeped in commercial materialism and caked with the bacteria of racism and homophobia..” -Jean Jacques Charles, Bosphorus Review, Queens, NY

The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe

This book may be the original single girl in the city story, pre-dating anything HBO or otherwise. Set in 1950s New York, this novel chronicles the lives of 3 working women in NYC and all the taboos that women couldn’t speak of. Gritty, real and often humorous, topics that were not openly discussed are referenced freely in this coming of age tale that the author hoped would inspire women to be more liberated in their life choices.

“[The Best of Everything] is what you would get if you took “Sex and the City” and set it inside “Mad Men” ’s universe.”. - Michelle, The New Yorker