City of Promise
A Novel of New York's Gilded Age
Beverly Swerling’s epic saga continues as New York emerges from the Civil War into the Gilded Age—a city marked by soaring expansion and teeming with unbridled ambition and dazzling glamour. Joshua Turner returns home from the war with only one leg yet determined to make his fortune. He aspires to build the city’s first apartment houses for Everyman, a daring vision that will make him the city’s first real estate titan but attracts the attention of a shadowy figure from his past. Mollie Brannigan, raised by her Auntie Eileen in the toniest bordello in town, is resigned at age twenty-two to spinsterhood. Then Joshua finds her at Macy’s, the city’s largest emporium, and takes her coaching in Central Park. In his love Mollie finds a world of possibilities, but a secret Eileen thought left behind in Ireland will force Mollie to employ all her wits to protect not just her chance at happiness but her life. Vividly imagined and awash in period detail, City of Promise delivers not only suspense and intrigue, daring plot twists and bitter rivalries, but also the captivating love story of two people struggling to forge their own destiny.
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- Simon & Schuster |
- 448 pages |
- ISBN 9781439136966 |
- August 2012
$15.00 List Price
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Book Reviews
Reading Group Guide
This reading group guide for City of Promise includes an introduction, discussion questions, ideas for enhancing your book club, and a Q&A with author Beverly Swerling. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.
INTRODUCTION
City of Promise, the fourth novel in Beverly Swerling’s City series, brings to life a New York City humming with potential: opulent buildings are transforming the city’s skyline; elevated trains are sparking the city’s movement uptown; immigrant laborers are pouring into Five Points and powering the industrial boom; and the Brooklyn Bridge, a symbol of astounding innovation, is rising steadily in the background. In City of Promise, Joshua Turner, a young man who has lost a leg in the Civil War, capitalizes on this cacophony of late-nineteenth century industry and becomes one of the city’s first real estate tycoons. Early on Josh marries Mollie Brannigan, raised by her remarkable Auntie Eileen in the finest brothel in New York. Mollie uses her cleverness and her understanding of how things work in the city to support and expand her husband’s growing empire. Then tragedy strikes and Mollie retreats into silent pain, shutting out Josh and all else except the garden she builds i see more
INTRODUCTION
City of Promise, the fourth novel in Beverly Swerling’s City series, brings to life a New York City humming with potential: opulent buildings are transforming the city’s skyline; elevated trains are sparking the city’s movement uptown; immigrant laborers are pouring into Five Points and powering the industrial boom; and the Brooklyn Bridge, a symbol of astounding innovation, is rising steadily in the background. In City of Promise, Joshua Turner, a young man who has lost a leg in the Civil War, capitalizes on this cacophony of late-nineteenth century industry and becomes one of the city’s first real estate tycoons. Early on Josh marries Mollie Brannigan, raised by her remarkable Auntie Eileen in the finest brothel in New York. Mollie uses her cleverness and her understanding of how things work in the city to support and expand her husband’s growing empire. Then tragedy strikes and Mollie retreats into silent pain, shutting out Josh and all else except the garden she builds i see more
