Brooklyn Crime Novel

Jonathan Lethem

From the bestselling and award-winning author comes a sweeping and prismatic story of community, crime and gentrification, tracing over fifty years of life in one city neighbourhood.

On the streets of 1970s New York, a daily ritual goes down: the dance. Tussles between kids, Black and white, where money is exchanged, belongings surrendered, power asserted. Everyone knows the rules, or so it seems. But things can change in the blink of an eye, with devastating consequences. And when they do, who is really responsible? Do the crimes rest with the individuals – or with an entire gentrifying community?

Written with kaleidoscopic verve and spanning over fifty years, Brooklyn Crime Novel is a breathtaking tour de force by a writer at the top of his powers, an exploration of an iconic, ever-changing neighbourhood and an interrogation of crime fiction itself.

Praise for Jonathan Lethem: ‘One of America’s greatest storytellers.’ Washington Post

‘A master at subverting expectations of form and genre and the author of some of the most original novels in recent decades.’ New York Times