This Side of Brightness : A Novel

by McCann, Colum

• ISBN13: 9780805054538
• ISBN10: 0805054537
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-05-15
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks

Summary

Hailed for its "shining prose" (The Philadelphia Inquirer) and "gripping realism" (Newsday), This Side of Brightness is a powerful bl of imagination and history set in underground Manhattan. At the turn of the century, New York's sandhogs burrowed beneath the East River, digging the tunnels that would link Brooklyn to Manhattan; many decades later, those same tunnels offer refuge to the desperate and homeless. Spanning seventy years, Colum McCann's acclaimed novel tells the story of three generations bound to the tunnels by ill-fated loves, uninted crimes, and social taboos. Haunting and lyrical, This Side of Brightness delivers a tale of family, race, and redemption as bold and fabulous as New York City itself.

Author Biography

Colum McCann is the author of Songdogs (Picador, 0-3121-4741-4) and Fishing the Sloe-Black River (Owl Books, 0-8050-4107-9). Born in Dublin, he lives in New York with his wife and daughter.

Table of Contents

"Disturbingly beautiful . . . A dazzling bl of menace and heartbreak." (David Willis McCullough, The New York Times Book Review)

"As luminescent as its name, resplent with dignity, this is one of the few novels in recent memory that I mourned even as I read." (Gail Caldwell, The Boston Globe)

"A rarity in this cool era-the urban saga with a social conscience, employing the large canvas once used by Steinbeck and Algren." (Ambrose Clancy, The Washington Post)

"Gritty, disturbing, and powerful . . . McCann is a fiercely original talent and a major one." (Andy Solomon, San Francisco Chronicle)