Newyorkland: A Novel

Abstract

After a chance encounter in college, two best friends move across the country where they'll grow up - and grow apart - in the fabled worlds of New York City and the book publishing industry. In 1984, Frances Close from suburban Illinois and Sadie Lam from Manhattan's Chinatown are paired together as college roommates. Instant best friends, the women graduate and move to New York City, where they move up the ladder of the world's largest publishing house, marry their college sweethearts, and have children months apart from each other. And then suddenly it all falls apart when the September 11 attacks widow them. Two decades later, Frances's and Sadie's children meet in another chance encounter, but by then New York finds itself devastated by a different catastrophe: the Covid-19 pandemic. Together, the new friends must escape the city, reunite with their families, and discover the secrets of their parents to unlock their own futures.