Over the years I’ve read a lot of books set in New York. The City features very differently in each of these, ranging from a passive, mood-setting backdrop, to a dynamic agent of chaos/change/catastrophe. Books in bold are strongly recommended :)

Fantastical futures and pasts

• New York 2140, Kim Stanley Robinson

• The City We Became, NK Jemisin

• Severance, Ling Ma

• The Golem and the Jinni, Helene Wecker

• An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Hank Green

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon

• Rules of Civility, Amor Towles

Lessons on living

• Free Food for Millionaires, Min Jin Lee

• A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara

• Homeland Elegies, Ayad Akhtar

• The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid

• My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh

• Asymmetry, Lisa Halliday

• New Waves, Kevin Nguyen

• Immigrant, Montana, Amitava Kumar

• Open City, Teju Cole

• Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Truman Capote

Page turners

• Goldfinch, Donna Tartt

• Motherless Brooklyn, Jonathan Letham

• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid

Non-fiction

• Lonely City, Olivia Laing

• The Power Broker, Robert Caro