Tattoos on the Heart meets Ghettoside in this gripping true story about a botched gang murder set in the invisible economy of LA's immigrant street vendors.

Baby-faced teen Giovanni Macedo is desperate to build a reputation with local LA gang, the Columbia Lil Cycos -- so desperate that he agrees to kill an undocumented Mexican street vendor. The vendor, Francisco Clemente, had been refusing to give in to the gang’s shakedown demands. But Giovanni botches the hit, accidentally killing a baby instead. The imprisoned overlords who rule their world must be placated so the gang lures Giovanni across the border and plots his disposal. But, in turn, the gang botches Giovanni's killing. And so, incredibly, Giovanni rises from the dead, determined to both seek redemption for his unforgivable crime and take down the whole gang who drove him to do it.

The Rent Collectors is filled with ruthless gang members, tattoo artists, a legendary FBI investigator, a girl who risks her life to serve as a witness, all in service to the story of the irrationally courageous immigrant whose ethical stance triggers these incredible events.

Jesse Katz has built a teeth clenching and breathless narrative that explicates the difficult and proud lives of undocumented black market workers who are being exploited both by the gangs and by the city of LA -- in other words, by two sets of rent collectors.

The Anthropologists is a mesmerizing narrative that captures the essence of modern coupledom, home-building, and expat life in a universal city. Asya and Manu, a young couple, find themselves envisioning a future in a foreign city as they look at apartments. They ponder over the life they wish to create. Can they establish their own traditions and rituals? Whom will they consider family?

Asya, a documentarian, spends her days gathering footage from a neighborhood park, like an anthropologist studying local customs. Her grandmother's words echo in her mind, questioning her focus on the mundane when she was named for an entire continent. Meanwhile, life in Asya and Manu's home countries goes on—parents age, grandparents fall ill, and nieces and nephews grow up, all just out of their reach.

Yet, the world they are creating in their new city expands, becoming something distinctly theirs. As they broaden the horizons of their lives, they are faced with decisions about what and whom to hold onto, and what must be released. Acclaimed by authors such as Lauren Groff and Marina Abramovic, The Anthropologists by Aysegul Savas is a soulful, often humorous, exploration of modern relationships and the quest for a place to call home.

Parasol Against the Axe, a novel by the prize-winning, bestselling author Helen Oyeyemi, takes readers on an adventurous and kaleidoscopic journey into the heart of Prague, a city portrayed as a living entity capable of welcoming or rejecting its visitors.

Hero Tojosoa, upon accepting an invitation to a bachelorette weekend hosted by her estranged friend Sofie, finds herself in the intriguing and often deceptive embrace of Prague. A mysterious book she carries distorts her perception, its content shifting with each reader and each reading, unveiling a tapestry of fictional tales from Prague's history. Throughout the weekend, unexpected figures join the festivities, imparting their wisdom, humor, and hints of betrayal.

The sudden arrival of a third woman from Hero and Sofie's shared past intensifies the tension and challenges their differing recollections. As the lines between illusion and delusion, fact and interpretation become blurred, Hero must navigate the treacherous waters of friendship and storytelling.

Parasol Against the Axe probes the influence of the reader on a narrative and the narrative on the reader, posing the ultimate question: in a clash between friends, is it wiser to be the shield or the weapon?

Rosie and Chad Lowan are barely making ends meet in New York City when they receive life-changing news: Chad's late uncle has left them his luxury apartment at the historic Windermere in glamorous Murray Hill. With its prewar elegance and impeccably uniformed doorman, the building is the epitome of old New York charm. One would almost never suspect the dark history lurking behind its perfectly maintained facade.

At first, the building and its eclectic tenants couldn't feel more welcoming. But as the Lowans settle into their new home, Rosie starts to suspect that there's more to the Windermere than meets the eye. Why is the doorman ever-present? Why are there cameras everywhere? And why have so many gruesome crimes occurred there throughout the years? When one of the neighbors turns up dead, Rosie must get to the truth about the Windermere before she, too, falls under its dangerous spell.

Tracy Brown crafts a tale about a master manipulator and serial survivor, who will scorch earth to get what she wants. The question isn't who murdered her; the question is who wouldn't?

Brooklyn Melody James has finally gotten the punishment she deserves after leaving a web of lies, heartache, and betrayal behind her. As her life slips away, Brooklyn remembers the events that shaped her into the cold, calculating creature she became.

Brooklyn learned the art of hustling from her parents who used the church to get money. Idolizing her father and despising her mother, Brooklyn's determined to be the type of woman who makes her own rules. When her back's up against the wall, she sacrifices her family, takes the burnt offering that remains, and runs away. In NYC, young Brooklyn charms her way into the inner circle of hustlers and stick-up kids, learning tricks along the way. She catches the eye of a major player in the drug game, Hassan, and they have a breathless love affair. Brooklyn becomes integrated into his operation, earning the trust of Hassan and his associates. But when she gets the keys to the kingdom, driven by unfettered ambition and a ruthless desire to survive, Brooklyn snatches the pot of gold, leaving bitter retribution promises behind her.

From DC to Maryland, Brooklyn burns bridges and breaks hearts. What she doesn't realize is that someone is prepared to end her reign of terror. As she faces her killer and her fate, Brooklyn's stunned that justice comes from the least likely place.

Fourteen Days unfolds in a Lower East Side tenement during the initial phase of the COVID-19 lockdowns, offering an unexpected and captivating narrative where each character, belonging to an eclectic and vibrant New York community, is clandestinely penned by a different prominent author. As the lockdown progresses, the residents of a Manhattan apartment complex start to congregate on their rooftop, sharing stories night after night. These gatherings transform strangers into a tight-knit community, each bringing their own seat from chairs to overturned buckets.

The tenants, who had previously exchanged little more than nods, begin to forge genuine bonds. Fourteen Days, reminiscent of Decameron, is a collaborative novel overseen by general editor Margaret Atwood, with contributions from a stellar lineup of writers. It celebrates the unexpected strength and solidarity that emerged from the devastation of the pandemic. This heartwarming anthology stands as a testament to the resilience of communities in the face of adversity.

Contributors include: Margaret Atwood, Douglas Preston, Celeste Ng, Emma Donoghue, Dave Eggers, John Grisham, Diana Gabaldon, Ishmael Reed, Meg Wolitzer, Luis Alberto Urrea, James Shapiro, Sylvia Day, Mary Pope Osborne, Monique Truong, Hampton Sides, R. L. Stine, R. O. Kwon, David Byrne, Louise Erdrich, Neil Gaiman, Rachel Kushner, Candace Bushnell, Nora Roberts, Scott Turow, Tommy Orange, and many more.

Spring break, 2009. High school best friends Zoe and Dani are now freshman college students, meeting in a place they've wanted to visit forever: New York City. Tagging along is Dani's classmate Fiona, a mercurial art student with an opinion on everything.

Together, the three cram in as much of the city as possible, gleefully falling into tourist traps, pondering so-called great works of art, sidestepping creeps, and eating lots and lots of pizza (folded in half, of course). Roaming is a ground-breaking graphic novel from the authors behind New York Times bestseller and Caldecott Honor Book This One Summer.

Witness by National Book Award finalist Jamel Brinkley is an elegant, insistent narrative of actions taken and not taken. It explores the profound question: What does it mean to really see the world around you—to bear witness? And what does it cost us, both to see and not to see?

In this collection of ten stories, each set in the changing landscapes of contemporary New York City, a range of characters—from children to grandmothers to ghosts—live through the responsibility of perceiving and the moral challenge of speaking up or taking action. Though they strive to connect with, stand up for, care for, and remember one another, they often fall short, and the structures they build around these ambitions and failures shape their futures as well as the legacies and prospects of their communities and their city.

Witness enacts its own testimony through portraits of families and friendships lost and found, the paradox of intimacy, the long shadow of grief, and the meaning of home. Here is a world where fortunes can be made and stolen in just a few generations, where strangers might sometimes show kindness while those we trust—doctors, employers, siblings—too often turn away, where joy comes in snatches: flowers on a windowsill, dancing in the street, glimpsing your purpose, change on the horizon.

With prose as upendingly beautiful as it is artfully, seamlessly crafted, Jamel Brinkley offers nothing less than the full scope of life and death and change in the great, unending drama of the city.

Crook Manifesto continues the Harlem saga by the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author Colson Whitehead. Set in a 1970s New York that is both seedy and glittering, the novel follows furniture store owner and ex-fence Ray Carney as he navigates a city on the brink of bankruptcy.

It's 1971, and Carney is trying to keep his head down and his business afloat amidst rampant crime and a citywide nervous breakdown. His criminal past is behind him—or so he believes—until a quest for Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter May entangles him with his old police contact Munson, a fixer with his own dangerous agenda.

By 1973, as the counter-culture ushers in a new generation and the old ways are being cast aside, Carney's partner in crime, Pepper, is caught up in the world of Blaxploitation films. It's a bizarre mix of Hollywood stars, comedians on the rise, and the usual underworld figures, all underestimating Pepper's cunning and resourcefulness.

In the lead-up to the Bicentennial celebrations of 1976, Harlem itself is ablaze, and Carney must reconcile his advertising ambitions with his wife Elizabeth's political aspirations as she campaigns for her friend, the ambitious Alexander Oakes. When tragedy strikes close to home, Carney and Pepper must confront the city's shady and violent forces to uncover the truth.

Crook Manifesto is not only a darkly humorous tale of a city under siege but also a profound exploration of family and survival. Colson Whitehead's vivid depiction of Harlem stands as a testament to one of history's most dynamic places and times.

Con un par de golpecitos en la pantalla, tu smartphone puede colocar delante de ti un automóvil. Esta sencilla operación pone en funcionamiento toda una maquinaria extractiva que se aprovecha de la infraestructura urbana, de los bienes y recursos de los trabajadores e incluso de los datos personales de los usuarios, para poner en contacto a un conductor marginado del mercado laboral formal y a un viajero deseoso de escapar de las penurias del transporte público. Esta plataformización del trabajo revela una nueva lógica empresarial, en la que se enhebran la innovación informática y el abuso patronal, la reinvención de los servicios urbanos y el canto de las sirenas del autoempleo. ¡Bienvenidos todos al cappitalismo!

Con las sutiles herramientas de la antropología contemporánea, tanto de gabinete como de campo, Natalia Radetich se lanzó a la jungla de concreto para conocer desde dentro la mecánica por la que Uber, quizá la más emblemática de las aplicaciones para el transporte de pasajeros, crea sus mensajes para convencer —y mantener enganchados— a conductores y usuarios, y para, con total descaro, eludir su responsabilidad fiscal y patronal. Escrito con rigor y sagacidad, ricamente documentado y nutrido de observaciones en el terreno, este libro desmenuza los elementos de un novedoso fenómeno que está ocurriendo delante de nosotros, lo mismo en la movilidad, el reparto de alimentos o la mensajería: la uberización del trabajo. En ese escenario despiadado ha surgido, sin embargo, un ánimo solidario entre quienes sufren la precarización laboral.

Este libro resultará clave para entender la actual etapa del capitalismo y los mecanismos de la apropiación empresarial.

Hart is a marshal, tasked with patrolling the strange and magical wilds of Tanria. It's an unforgiving job, and Hart's got nothing but time to ponder his loneliness. Mercy never has a moment to herself. She's been single-handedly keeping Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat in defiance of sullen jerks like Hart, who seems to have a gift for showing up right when her patience is thinnest.

After yet another exasperating run-in with Mercy, Hart finds himself penning a letter addressed simply to "A Friend". Much to his surprise, an anonymous letter comes back in return, and a tentative friendship is born. If only Hart knew he's been baring his soul to the person who infuriates him most – Mercy. As the dangers from Tanria grow closer, so do the unlikely correspondents. But can their blossoming romance survive the fated discovery that their pen pals are their worst nightmares – each other?

Set in a world full of magic and demigods, donuts and small-town drama, this enchantingly quirky, utterly unique fantasy is perfect for readers of The House in the Cerulean Sea and The Invisible Library.

In Reclaiming the Discarded, Kathleen M. Millar offers an evocative ethnography of Jardim Gramacho, a sprawling garbage dump on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, where roughly two thousand self-employed workers known as catadores collect recyclable materials. While the figure of the scavenger sifting through garbage seems iconic of wageless life today, Millar shows how the work of reclaiming recyclables is more than a survival strategy or an informal labor practice.

Rather, the stories of catadores show how this work is inseparable from conceptions of the good life and from human struggles to realize these visions within precarious conditions of urban poverty. By approaching the work of catadores as highly generative, Millar calls into question the category of informality, common conceptions of garbage, and the continued normativity of wage labor. In so doing, she illuminates how waste lies at the heart of relations of inequality and projects of social transformation.

Jeff Speck has dedicated his career to determining what makes cities thrive. And he has boiled it down to one key factor: walkability.

The very idea of a modern metropolis evokes visions of bustling sidewalks, vital mass transit, and a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly urban core. But in the typical American city, the car is still king, and downtown is a place that's easy to drive to but often not worth arriving at.

Making walkability happen is relatively easy and cheap; seeing exactly what needs to be done is the trick. In this essential new book, Speck reveals the invisible workings of the city, how simple decisions have cascading effects, and how we can all make the right choices for our communities.

Bursting with sharp observations and real-world examples, giving key insight into what urban planners actually do and how places can and do change, Walkable City lays out a practical, necessary, and eminently achievable vision of how to make our normal American cities great again.

It's been three years since the devastating accident... three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life forever. Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Juilliard's rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia's home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future - and each other.

Told from Adam's point of view in the spare, lyrical prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.

A missed first encounter… Colliding with a second chance… On the heels of graduating college and trying to cope with her mother’s death, Emily Cooper moves to New York City for a fresh start.

While harboring secrets of his own, Dillon Parker takes care of Emily through her grief. Knowing he can’t live without her by his side, he’s sweet, thoughtful, and everything Emily has ever wanted in a man.

Until she meets Gavin Blake—a rich and notorious playboy who is dangerously sexy and charming as hell. Emily tries to deny the instant connection she feels, but Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome is not inclined to let go so easily. Recovering from his own painful past, Gavin will stop at nothing to win Emily over.

This unexpected encounter compels Emily to question her decisions, forcing her to make a choice that will destroy friendships, shatter hearts, and forever change her life.

Escaping a cheating ex, finance whiz Sara Dillon’s moved to New York City and is looking for excitement and passion without a lot of strings attached. So meeting the irresistible, sexy Brit at a dance club should have meant nothing more than a night’s fun. But the manner—and speed—with which he melts her inhibitions turns him from a one-time hookup and into her Beautiful Stranger.

The whole city knows that Max Stella loves women, not that he’s ever found one he particularly wants to keep around. Despite pulling in plenty with his Wall Street bad boy charm, it’s not until Sara—and the wild photos she lets him take of her—that he starts wondering if there’s someone for him outside of the bedroom. Hooking up in places where anybody could catch them, the only thing scarier for Sara than getting caught in public is having Max get too close in private.

Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its protagonists, the fiery and unforgettable Lila, and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflictual friendship. Book one in the series follows Lila and Elena from their first fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence.

Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists.

Ferrante is one of the world’s great storytellers. With My Brilliant Friend she has given her readers an abundant, generous, and masterfully plotted page-turner that is also a stylish work of literary fiction destined to delight readers for many generations to come.

Fourth Comings, the fourth installment in the beloved, New York Times bestselling series by Megan McCafferty, captures the life of Jessica Darling as she navigates her early twenties in New York City. With a degree in psychology, Jessica works for a magazine and lives with her best friend, Hope, in a shared apartment affectionately dubbed the 'Cupcake.' Their Brooklyn neighborhood, more suited to 'breeders,' is also home to their high school friend, Manda, and Manda's 'genderqueer boifriend.'

Although Jessica's freelance work barely makes a dent in her student loans, she finds unexpected joys in babysitting her niece and the vibrant city life—full of literary parties, art openings, and downtown karaoke. Yet, it's her tumultuous relationship with Marcus Flutie that leaves Jessica most unsettled. As Marcus starts his freshman year at Princeton at twenty-three, he proposes to Jessica, giving her one week to decide. This proposal sets off a week of introspection, unexpected wisdom, and surprising revelations—including insights from a talk show shrink, a drag queen named Royalle G. Biv, and her own parents.

As Jessica considers whether to embrace her current, imperfect life or to upend it for a future with Marcus in New Jersey, she ponders with her characteristic snark and sharp insight. This pivotal week becomes the most tumultuous and memorable of her life, challenging her perceptions and the very choices that define her.

Renowned hip-hop artist, political activist, and bestselling author Sister Souljah brings the streets of New York to life in a powerful and utterly unforgettable first novel.

I came busting into the world during one of New York's worst snowstorms, so my mother named me Winter. Ghetto-born, Winter is the young, wealthy daughter of a prominent Brooklyn drug-dealing family. Quick-witted, sexy, and business-minded, she knows and loves the streets like the curves of her own body. But when a cold Winter wind blows her life in a direction she doesn't want to go, her street smarts and seductive skills are put to the test of a lifetime. Unwilling to lose, this ghetto girl will do anything to stay on top.

Featuring a Special Collector’s Edition Reader’s Guide—including an author Q&A, detailed character analyses, and the author’s own remarks about the meaning of her story.

The irresistible heroine of Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Ties the Knot is back! And this time Becky Bloomwood and her credit cards are headed across the Atlantic.... With her shopping excesses (somewhat) in check and her career as a TV financial guru thriving, Becky's biggest problem seems to be tearing her entrepreneur boyfriend, Luke, away from work for a romantic country weekend. And worse, figuring out how to pack light. But packing takes on a whole new meaning when Luke announces he's moving to New York for business--and he asks Becky to go with him! Before you can say "Prada sample sale," Becky has landed in the Big Apple, home of Park Avenue penthouses and luxury boutiques. Surely it's only a matter of time until she becomes an American TV celebrity, and she and Luke are the toast of Gotham society. Nothing can stand in their way, especially with Becky's bills miles away in London. But then an unexpected disaster threatens her career prospects, her relationship with Luke, and her available credit line! Shopaholic Takes Manhattan--but will she have to return it?

London tracks the history of the English capital from the days of the Celts until the present time. Edward Rutherfurd, a master of epic historical fiction, presents a sweeping novel that spans two thousand years. This vibrant city's long and noble history is brought alive through the saga of ever-shifting fortunes, fates, and intrigues of a half-dozen families, from the age of Julius Caesar to the twentieth century.

Generation after generation, these families embody the passion, struggle, wealth, and verve of the greatest city in the Old World. Experience the invasion by Julius Caesar’s legions in 54 B.C., the rise of chivalry and the Crusades, the building of the Globe theatre, and the coming of the Industrial Revolution. Witness first-hand the lust of Henry VIII and overhear Geoffrey Chaucer deciding to write The Canterbury Tales.

Each episode is a punchy tale made up of bite-size chunks ending in tiny cliffhangers, offering a delightful way to get the feel of London and of English history.

Teresa Caldeira's pioneering study of fear, crime, and segregation in S�o Paulo poses essential questions about citizenship and urban change in contemporary democratic societies. Focusing on S�o Paulo, and using comparative data on Los Angeles, she identifies new patterns of segregation developing in these cities and suggests that these patterns are appearing in many metropolises.

The book provides a brilliant analysis of the dynamics of urban fear and its impact on the city's geography. Caldeira's work is recognized for its theoretical boldness, rich ethnography, and specific historical insights. It addresses the many challenges and obstacles that government and civil society face in new democracies, shedding light on authoritarian continuity under political reform.

Harry White is a man haunted by a satyr's lust and an obsessive need for sin and retribution. The more Harry succeeds -- a good marriage, a good corporate job -- the more desperate he becomes, as a life of petty crime leads to fraud and murder and, eventually, to apocalyptic violence.

Author of the controversial cult classic, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Hubert Selby began as a writer of short fiction. He plunges the reader head-first into the densely realized worlds of his protagonists, in which the details of daily life rub shoulders with obsession and madness. Although fundamentally concerned with morality, Selby's own sense of humility prevents him from preaching. He offers instead a passionate empathy with the ordinary dreams and aspirations of his characters, a brilliant ear for the urban vernacular and for the voices of conscience and self-deceit that torment his characters.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is the beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century. This poignant and moving tale is filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache. It's crowded with life, people, and vivid incidents.

The story follows the young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg. The daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are portrayed with raw honesty and are tenderly threaded with family connectedness. Betty Smith's work is a brilliant literary piece that captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.

When lives are dominated by hunger, what becomes of love? When assaulted by daily acts of violence and untimely death, what happens to trust? Set in the lands of Northeast Brazil, this is an account of the everyday experience of scarcity, sickness, and death that centres on the lives of the women and children of a hillside favela. Bringing her readers to the impoverished slopes above the modern plantation town of Bom Jesus de Mata, where she has worked on and off for 25 years, Nancy Scheper-Hughes follows three generations of shantytown women as they struggle to survive through hard work, cunning and triage.

It is a story of class relations told at the most basic level of bodies, emotions, desires and needs. Most disturbing – and controversial – is her finding that mother love, as conventionally understood, is something of a bourgeois myth, a luxury for those who can reasonably expect, as these women cannot, that their infants will live.

The Catcher in the Rye is an all-time classic in coming-of-age literature—an elegy to teenage alienation, capturing the deeply human need for connection and the bewildering sense of loss as we leave childhood behind. It's Christmas time, and Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from yet another school.

Fleeing the crooks at Pencey Prep, he pinballs around New York City seeking solace in fleeting encounters—shooting the bull with strangers in dive hotels, wandering alone around Central Park, getting beaten up by pimps, and cut down by erstwhile girlfriends. The city is both beautiful and terrible, in all its neon loneliness and seedy glamour, with a mingled sense of possibility and emptiness. Holden passes through it like a ghost, thinking always of his kid sister Phoebe, the only person who really understands him, and his determination to escape the phonies and find a life of true meaning.

J.D. Salinger's classic novel of teenage angst and rebellion was first published in 1951. The novel has been frequently challenged in court for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and was the book that every teenage boy wanted to read in the 1950s and 60s.