This Side of Brightness

By the author of Let the Great World Spin, this critically acclaimed novel delves deep into the underbelly of New York.

‘Vivid, potent, beautifully measured, and sustained by astonishingly deft description' — Maggie O'Farrell

‘A dazzling blend of menace and heartbreak' — New York Times Book Review

At the turn of the twentieth century, Nathan Walker comes to New York City to take the most dangerous job in the country: digging the tunnel far beneath the Hudson that will carry trains from Brooklyn to Manhattan.

In the bowels of the riverbed, the workers — black, white, Irish, and Italian — dig together, the darkness erasing all differences. But above ground, the men keep their distance until a dramatic accident on a bitter winter's day welds a bond between Walker and his fellow workers that will both bless and curse three generations.

Almost ninety years later, a homeless man nicknamed Treefrog stumbles on the same tunnels and sets about creating a home amongst the drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, and petty criminals that comprise the forgotten homeless community.