Paradise Alley - (City of Fire Trilogy) by Kevin Baker (Paperback)

About the Book

Now in paperback comes the story of the intersection of the Irish and African-American experiences in the crucible of 19th-century New York--a story of race and hatred, love and war, of risk and dauntless courage.

From the Back Cover

They came by boat from a starving land--and by the Underground Railroad from Southern chains--seeking refuge in a crowded, filthy corner of hell at the bottom of a great metropolis. But in the terrible July of 1863, the poor and desperate of Paradise Alley would face a new catastrophe--as flames from the war that was tearing America in two reached out to set their city on fire.

Review Quotes

"Paradise Alley probes the primal mysteries of ...love and war with skill, drama and deep humanity." - Edmonton Journal
"Skillfully illuminates a little-known episode in this country's history." - Library Journal
"[A] richly detailed, impeccably researched drama." - Booklist
"Paradise Alley is a skillful historical reconstruction -- an exploration of love and loyalty." - Hartford Courant
"A rare and special work." - Denver Post
"Inspired.... vividly entertaining, and its themes are as timely as any drawn from this morning's newspaper. " - Baltimore Sun
Phenomenal." - San Diego Union-Tribune
"A page-turning epic." - New York Post
"Deftly plotted, fabulously detailed, and never less than absorbing." - Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
"Extraordinary....Baker achieves a hallucinatory realism packed with sensory detail." - Los Angeles Times Book Review
"[A] huge success....fascinating, instructive, never pedantic." - Houston Chronicle
"Rich in color and drama.... Extraordinary.... A triumph." - New York Times
"[An] extraordinary talent....Kevin Baker is quickly altering the landscape of American historical fiction." - Christian Science Monitor
"An engrossing epic" - Entertainment Weekly
"Extraordinary....Baker achieves a hallucinatory realism packed with sensory detail, demonstrating why historical fiction is able to trump conventional historiography." - Los Angeles Times Book Review