Unseen City - by Amy Shearn (Paperback)

About the Book

Unseen City is a multi-generational portrait of New York and the unexpected connections between a lonely Brooklyn librarian, a widower returning to his roots, and a ghost still lingering in a home that was once part of an activist-founded farming settlement.

Book Synopsis

*GOLD MEDAL winner in the 2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards in Literary Fiction*

In a city teeming with stories, how do lost souls find one another? It's a question Meg Rhys doesn't think she's asking. Meg is a self-identified spinster librarian, satisfied with living with her cat, stacks of books, and her dead sister's ghost in her New York City apartment. Then she becomes obsessed with an intriguing library patron and the haunted house he's trying to research. The house has its own story to tell too, of love and war, of racism's fallout and the ghost story that is gentrification, and of Brooklyn before it was Brooklyn. What follows is an exploration of what home is, how we live with loss, who belongs in the city and to whom the city belongs, and the possibilities and power of love.

Review Quotes

Gripping, moving, and vital, Unseen City asks how human life might defy its lifespan--in the throes of love, the conviction of belief, and each person's mark upon a city that will survive them. For two days, I laughed at Amy Shearn's wry humor and gasped at her gorgeous sentences; I couldn't put this brilliant book down until its perfect final line (and I'm haunted still--which is appropriate, I suppose)!
--Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, bestselling author of June and Bittersweet



Atmospheric, poignant, well-observed, and sneakily funny, Amy Shearn's Unseen City is one from the heart, an absorbing read for all those who love Brooklyn, great writing, and the human spirit.
--Kevin Baker, bestselling author of The Big Crowd and America the Ingenious



If Amy Shearn's fiction is as much fun to write as it is to read, that's welcome news because it's impossible to read her novels without wanting more, more, more. In true Shearn style, Unseen City is whip-smart, hilarious, and also deeply touching, and this story about mismatched New Yorkers finding common ground in a city they've decided--come hell or higher rent--to adore, will delight and charm you long after the last page.

--Courtney Maum, author of I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You and Touch and founder of the learning collaborative, THE CABINS.

"Shearn's nimble storytelling unearths a fascinating and fraught history."--Publishers Weekly

"Gripping, moving, and vital, Unseen City asks how human life might defy its lifespan--in the throes of love, the conviction of belief, and each person's mark upon a city that will survive them. For two days, I laughed at Amy Shearn's wry humor and gasped at her gorgeous sentences; I couldn't put this brilliant book down until its perfect final line (and I'm haunted still--which is appropriate, I suppose)!" --Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, bestselling author of June and Bittersweet

"Atmospheric, poignant, well-observed, and sneakily funny, Amy Shearn's Unseen City is one from the heart, an absorbing read for all those who love Brooklyn, great writing, and the human spirit." --Kevin Baker, bestselling author of The Big Crowd and America the Ingenious

"If Amy Shearn's fiction is as much fun to write as it is to read, that's welcome news because it's impossible to read her novels without wanting more, more, more. In true Shearn style, Unseen City is whip-smart, hilarious, and also deeply touching, and this story about mismatched New Yorkers finding common ground in a city they've decided--come hell or higher rent--to adore, will delight and charm you long after the last page." --Courtney Maum, author of I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You and Touch and founder of the learning collaborative, THE CABINS.

"Shearn's nimble storytelling unearths a fascinating and fraught history."--Publishers Weekly

"What can be described as a love letter to New York, Amy Shearn's novel serves as a romantic, haunting story that weaves together the metropolitan behemoth's past and present." --Samantha Zabell, Apartment Therapy

"Ghosts, New York City, and a real estate mystery from the past are the elements of this wildly enjoyable recent novel." --Emily Gray Tedrowe, author of The Talented Miss Farwell, GBH

"Shearn's book, Unseen City, is an unexpected entry into an historical home and the contrast between life and death. Or, perhaps more fitting, the contrast between living and death...An excellent read. You won't be disappointed." --Shelf Media Group